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CojpghtN?- 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 













A New Vision of Another Heaven 







A NEW VISION OF 
ANOTHER HEAVEN 


By 

RICHARD W. LEWIS, D. D. 

Author of “ This Way,” “ The Other Fellow “ The 
Meat and Bread Business" “ The Devil's 
Diary," u What's A Man," etc. 


“/ saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven 
and the first earth were passed away. And he that sat upon 
the throne said, Behold I make all things new ."— Rev. 21:1, 5. 



Chicago 


New York 


Fleming H. Revell Company 


London 


and 


Edinburgh 




Copyright, 1923, by 

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 



» r 

* r t 

• < 

€ i < 

* . 


New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 

OCT 13 1923 

©C 1 A 759390 

B I 


PREFACE 


T HIS is God’s book. He has given it. 

It is not the gift of schools, nor of 
scholarship. In that case all would 
have been most different. The author has long 
been pressed between the nether and upper 
millstones of sickness, sorrow, trials, tribula¬ 
tions, disappointments and distresses, until but 
for the Grace of God there had been no heart 
left to live, much less to labour, in writing this 
book, the outcome of painful experiences. 

Although this is God’s book, it is written for 
men, not for “ angels.” There are not a few 
“ angels ” of wisdom and knowledge these days 
who will, should they deign to read this book, 
delight to dissect it, and to discover its many 
defects. They will enjoy reflecting how very 
differently they see the future life, and how 
much better they could state their views. Let 
that be even so. Out of heartaches, out of 
strains, out of close, prayerful Bible study, out 
of all nights in prayer, out of Satanic persecu¬ 
tions, out of the betrayal of friends, out of the 
direst poverty, out of long-drawn-out home ill¬ 
ness, out of problems so huge none but God 

5 


6 


PREFACE 


could handle them, out of actual tests of God’s 
promises and most severe trials of Ilis grace, 
out of early home-teaching and the training of 
consecrated Christian parents, out of God’s 
love and mercy and goodness and grace has 
come this hook. 

As these pages have been written, the writer 
has been completely overwhelmed with a sense 
of his utter unworthiness—even to the point of 
profound humiliation, while at the same time 
he has been filled with most genuine gratitude 
to the Giver. 

This is by no means a scientific thesis. Nor 
is it a theological dissertation. It does not pose 
as a philosophy of future life. Nor is it yet 
a commentary on certain portions of the Scrip¬ 
tures. No effort is made, save the most casual, 
to explain the vision. Whatever is unsaid 
thereabout is not for saying. Some things can¬ 
not be said, although fully felt within us. 

It is only a vision-statement, made in the 
language furnished by whatever inspiration, in 
whatever way, from whatever source, to the 
writer. Absolutely no claim could be made 
herein to any erudition. No effort at brilliancy 
has been essayed. No ambition has been in¬ 
dulged save that to honour God and glorify His 
Holy Name in helping human beings who 
grope in the dark and long for the light. 


PREFACE 


7 


From a child the writer found himself out 
of sympathy with a vague, ethereal, distant, in¬ 
distinct, wholly spiritual Heaven. As the years 
have piled up, the conviction has increased that 
our future home shall he on this earth. To this 
view the Bible lends its utterances. That in¬ 
genious jugglers shall be able to skilfully dis¬ 
play their “ sleight-of-hand ” tricks to the utter 
perversion of simple Bible statements, is but to 
be expected. The most precious doctrines in 
the blessed Book of books have been so dis¬ 
sected as to become soulless and lifeless. Who¬ 
ever follows “ science falsely so-called ” in the 
study of God’s Word, may just as well prepare 
himself to surrender all that is sweet, spiritual, 
and soul-strengthening in his religion. (Yet 
he may live a very consistent and beautiful 
moral life, as did Cornelius. Acts 10:2, 
11:14.) 

The “ rationalists ” of our land, and many 
of their sympathizers, are dining on husks and 
will die of dry rot. For such classes this book 
will hold no interest. They are so wise, they 
are so self-sufficient and self-satisfied; they are 
so intoxicated on “ a little learning,” that they 
will content themselves with a pitying scoff and 
a dismissing scowl. They need no help. Hot 
even God Himself is able to aid them! (Matt. 
13:58). Their stupendous minds and their 


8 


PKEFACE 


colossal intellects are well able to throw much 
light (?) on the Bible accounts of the creation, 
the fall of man, the flood, the Virgin Birth, the 
Atonement, etc., etc. 

“ The common people ” heard Jesus gladly 
(Mark 12:37). This land holds many mil¬ 
lions of just such people. For the average 
man, for the usual woman, for the every-day 
child—for common mortals, this book is pub¬ 
lished. 

But a word of justification: Is it not a fact 
that God’s plans and purposes have always been 
misunderstood and opposed by certain men who 
counted themselves leaders of thought? Did 
not all the scientists, scholars, and leaders of 
Noah’s day deride him, mock at his messages, 
and spurn his prophecies ? Could Lot convince 
even his own children that God would destroy 
Sodom? Was not Jesus Himself crucified by 
the heads of the Jewish Church? Did He not 
say, When the Son of man cometh, shall He 
find faith on the earth? Is not scepticism a 
kind of second nature for humanity? Do not 
many scholars of our day unconsciously foster 
personal pride by forsaking the simple and less 
scientific—the spiritual and soul-feeding inter¬ 
pretations of God’s Word? After all, is not 
the Bible a simple story for common people? 
Does not this “ vision ” accord with the Word 


PREFACE 


9 


of God? That it tallies with the Holy Scrip¬ 
tures, there can be little doubt—it does not con¬ 
form to many interpretations thereof. That it 
shall clear up some passages not hitherto fully 
understood, is to he devoutly sought of the Lord. 
That it will satisfy many hungry hearts, and 
solace many longing souls, is the calm con¬ 
fidence of the author, who sends it forth bap¬ 
tized in his tears of joy, and bathed in his daily 
prayers. 

One criticism certain to be offered is that 
this “ vision ” of Heaven is too material. Per¬ 
haps this criticism may be due to the reader’s 
lifetime impressions of Heaven, handed down 
by forefathers whose views were less material. 
After all, has not the Word of God been cited? 
Does not that Word afford a foundation for the 
“ vision ” ? Is there no possibility that the old 
view may be the wrong view ? 

All the great men of faith are not teaching 
that Heaven is only a state of inactive bliss, and 
that saints spend eternity with crowns on their 
heads, songs on their lips, and harps in their 
hands. Hote what the eminent scholar and 
world-renowned preacher, Dr. Alexander Mac- 
Laren, is credited with saying: The joys of 
Heaven are not the joys of passive contempla¬ 
tion, of dreamy remembrance, of perfect re¬ 
pose; but they are described thus: “ They rest 


10 


PREFACE 


not day nor night ”; “ His servants shall serve 
Him.”; “ they shall see His face.” 

The vision of peopled planets will also he 
challenged by some scientists. Let them do so: 
the writer prefers to stand with God alone, if 
scientists object to the company! In Isaiah 
45:18 it is said that God formed this earth 
“ to be inhabited.” Scientists tell us this is 
one of the smallest of all the planets. Why 
should God form this tiny sphere to be in¬ 
habited, but create mighty worlds and leave 
them without an occupant ? Such a position is 
utterly untenable. It does not accord with the 
fact that God is a God of reason, and invites 
man to reason with Him (not without Him) ! 

If the “ vision ” seems to deal too much in 
the improbable, let us recall the words of the 
Prophet Isaiah: “ The Lord hath made bare 
his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and 
all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation 
of our God” (Isaiah 52:10). Let this pref¬ 
ace close with the words of Jesus, who came 
to earth from God to reveal the secrets of God: 
“ The things which are impossible with men, 
are possible with God” (Luke 18:27). 

R. W. L. 


Chattanooga, Tenn. 


Contents 


I. How It Happened .... 13 

II. “ The Parenthesis of Sin ” . .21 

III. A Panoramic Picture ... 29 

IV. The Face of a Man-god . . 37 

V. Meeting the Lord in the Air . 45 

VI. Going to the Marriage of the 

Lamb. 50 

VII. The Marriage Supper of the 

Lamb ...... 57 

VIII. The Bridal Tour .... 68 

IX. “ In My Father’s House ” . .82 

X. “ This Same Jesus ” Returning to 

Reign.86 

XI. A Thousand Years of Peace . 107 

XII. “ The New Heavens and The 
New Earth ” 


. 129 


I 


I 


HOW IT HAPPENED 


(t 


As a dream of a night vision ”— Isaiah 29:7. 



HETHER it came naturally, and 
was due to tlie train of events to be 
related, or was the result of a spir¬ 
itual state wherein a supernatural view of the 
glory-to-be was given me, the reader is left to de¬ 
termine by and for himself. The writer contents 
himself with this recitation of mental concep¬ 
tions and spiritual impressions which were his 
in some way, and which he records here for 
whatever benefit they may prove to be to those 
who may read them. In any case, this dream 
has at least changed the author’s theology, and 
altered his plans and ambitions. 

The call came to go from home some 800 
miles and conduct revival services in a distant 
State. While conducting the services strangers 
came into the audience one night, and sat to¬ 
gether in a pew. It was evident that they were 
no ordinary folk, and that their interest in the 
speaker was more than the usual. At the close 
of the service they introduced themselves as 

blood relations, and a date for visiting them 

13 


,14 NEW .VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


at their home in a neighbouring town was then 
and there agreed upon. In this subsequent 
visit there was much talk about various mem¬ 
bers of the large family to which all present 
belonged, and special interest centered in “ The 
Family Tree’’ being constructed by one mem¬ 
ber in the circle of kin. The writer was asked 
later to prepare a certain branch of the “ tree.” 
At once he went to work thereon, sending out 
letters to various members of the connection 
here and yonder. 

The meantime the scene of services shifted 
to a new field, out in the country. Among 
rank strangers, in a lonely rural retreat, the 
mail carrier brought a hunch of letters from 
relatives, young and old—the eldest my sainted 
mother’s only surviving sister (now past 80), 
out of a family of thirteen brothers and sis¬ 
ters. The letter told of loved ones long gone 
across the bar, and of others but recently de¬ 
parted. A letter from a cousin named no less 
than ten relatives and friends who had lately 
passed out into the great unseen and unknown 
beyond. Among these were some very near 
and very dear to me; while others were the 
close friends of boyhood’s days. Two of the 
cousins who wrote, although residing a thou¬ 
sand miles apart, spoke identically of being 
“ old women now.” 


HOW IT HAPPENED 


15 


While these reflections were having their 
meditative effect, it began raining. It rained 
so steadily for twenty-four hours, including the 
Sabbath day, that not a service was conducted, 
not even the Sunday School. The family en¬ 
tertaining me had company, washed in by a 
flood-tide which stopped their journey home¬ 
ward, since it had rendered the bridge danger¬ 
ous to cross. Thus it was that I was left for 
hours (largely because I preferred to he alone) 
in my room with my thoughts still lingering 
on the letters. My mind dwelling upon the 
large number of loved ones and friends of 
whose deaths I had just received notice, a down¬ 
pour of rain during the last thirty-six hours, all 
service discontinued, alone and amidst stran¬ 
gers—under such trying conditions, what more 
natural than resort to earnest, persistent prayer. 
The communion was sweet and reassuring. 
God seemed to speak in the silence and through 
the black gloom of that rainy night. 

Then the mind took its flight. It ran through 
the Word of God. It traversed the field of 
human suffering, sorrow, death; it penetrated 
the great unseen beyond by the strange powers 
of its imagination. The struggle was to solve 
the meaning of life here, the separation, the 
mystery of life hereafter,—the promise of John 
14:21 was claimed. The angry night grew 


16 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


fiercer; the wild winds swept around the cor¬ 
ners of the house; the dying fire in the stov$ 
sang its weird song in a minor key; a solitary 
fly buzzed about seemingly without aim; other¬ 
wise all was as silent as death itself. One look 
out into the darkness, and I drew back with the 
heart-breaking thought that some traveler might 
be trying to make his way in the pitch black¬ 
ness of that awful night of storm and rain. 
Then there swept over my soul thoughts of that 
other darkness of the just-out-there, with only 
a filmy veil separating us from it. My thoughts 
persisted in lingering in that strange, unseen 
realm, reported thus far by none other than 
Jesus, as recorded in God’s Holy Word. 

Throwing myself down into the outstretching 
arms of a big rocking chair, the dead of night 
solemnity without, and the haunting silence 
within (but for the few noises just named), my 
own convulsive heart-throbs and bitter sobs end¬ 
ing in outcries of long pent-up emotions, broke 
the silence within the room and for the moment 
obscured the sounds from without. Thus giv¬ 
ing way to my feelings my soul cried out to 
God for the revelation, so far as He could trust 
me, of man’s place in the divine plan here, and 
his place-to-be in eternity. With head thrown 
back, one hand over my face, and my eyes par¬ 
tially closed, I saw—Eden; I saw it in all its 


HOW IT HAPPENED 


17 


pristine glory, fresh from the hand of God, the 
perfection of beauty, the charm-spot of God’s 
foot-stool; the home of the first and only pair 
(at that time) occupying a place on the earth. 
Then saw I the sly deceiver of men “ slipping 
up on the blind side ” of mother Eve, and I 
witnessed anew the awful tragedies of the Fall 
of Man and the loss of a Paradise on earth. 
That darkness of doubt, disloyalty and deliber¬ 
ate disobedience appeared to me far worse than 
the physical blackness on the outside of my 
lonely room. 

Then suddenly my eye caught sight of a tiny 
Star that shone over Eden as the only ray of 
hope for a sin-cursed, Satan-ruined world. 
Rapidly on and on through the Scriptures ran 
my mind’s eye, stopping only at great mountain 
peaks of Messianic prophecies which stand out 
in all parts of the Old Testament. Then I 
heard the apostle Paul say, “ Where sin 
abounded, grace did much more abound ” 
(Rom. 5:20). There was a race! Sin and 
grace running in a contest for supremacy, and 
Grace won! Grace gloriously triumphant! 
Praise the Lord for His superabounding grace ! 
Now quickly came the new thought of the 
'parenthesis of sin! Because of sin grace has 
come as a special offset thereto, or as a divine 
provision therefor. But the sin will end , and 


18 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 

# 

then the special favour will be withdrawn; but 
now, “ The Parenthesis of Sin ! ” 

Back swept the mind, whether naturally, and 
of its own free will and accord—an automatic 
action; or whether by special divine urge in the 
giving of a true vision to a man for men, he 
who writes does not know, hence cannot say— 
but back swept the mind into the dim counsels 
of eternity where it beheld the Creator of the 
Universe speaking into existence great and won¬ 
derful worlds, and peopling them with varying 
human beings, all created in his own image, an¬ 
other way of saying, man endowed with the 
power to Choose his course, yet untried, hence 
to be tested. I was shown one plan for all in¬ 
habited worlds. I was given a moving picture 
of all the thousands of unfallen spheres, whose 
happy inhabitants had met the simple test of 
their Edens, in substance the same as our test 
in our Eden, yet without sin. I saw in these 
thousands of happy worlds, where no sin had 
ever entered, throngs of perfect beings con¬ 
stantly in the enjoyment of God and each the 
other without the slightest semblance of fric¬ 
tion from any cause. Their glorious civiliza¬ 
tions were untouched and untarnished by sin, 
and unfettered by transgression; hence had 
progressed marvelously beyond compare with 
anything on our earth, and were transcendent 


i 


HOW IT HAPPENED 


19 


in their dazzling splendour. Then, as if an 
angel spoke, I heard it said: If these many and 
mighty worlds have all stood the simple tests 
of the Edenic probations, and the peoples 
thereof are thus happy, prosperous and so per¬ 
fectly contented, who can say that the plan of 
God in testing His sentient creatures made in 
His own image, is not a complete success, even 
if one little world did fail to stand the test and 
become a wayward prodigal? 

Then I saw with a soul-satisfying fullness 
the infinite wisdom and justice of God, and the 
perfection of His plan. Into a rhapsody inde¬ 
scribable did my soul take its flight, and the 
glory of God shone about me thrilling my being 
with heavenly joy no tongue can tell, no pen 
can outline, and no earthly experience can ap¬ 
proach ! “ Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord, God Al¬ 

mighty, which was, and is, and is to come! ” 
(Eev. 4:8). In the light of that which I had 
just witnessed, or experienced, an easy solution 
of hell with all its horrors came to me, and I 
saw God emerge from the scenes depicted with¬ 
out the slightest scintilla of merited censure be¬ 
cause of the lost souls in a burning hell, even 
if the torment is eternal. For the few lost from 
the sin of earth are but the tiny drop in a 
bucket, in comparison with the countless bil¬ 
lions of souls on other spheres who have met 


20 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


the conditions of eternal union with God, re¬ 
sulting in the confirmation of their faith, loy¬ 
alty and love in perfect righteousness. What 
plan could do more? What plan could lose 
less ? God has done His best for His creatures. 
The vast majority of them fully appreciate 
what He has done in making the test so simple 
and so easy. If comparatively few fail in the 
test, surely the Giver of a perfect plan should 
not he charged with their failure. “ The Judge 
of all the earth will do right.” Hell was never 
made for man. It was prepared for the devil 
and his angels (Matthew 25 : 41). But if man 
will persist in following Satan, then he must 
inevitably land in the regions over which Satan 
shall preside throughout all eternity. If man 
abuses the greatest gift of character God can 
give him, he alone is chargeable—not his God. 



II 


“ THE PARENTHESIS OF SIN ” 

“ And they shall teach no more every man his neigh¬ 
bour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the 
Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of 
them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I 
will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their 
sin no more . ,> — Jeremiah 31:34. 


M 


Y mind was now fully submitted to 
the Lord that He might think through 
me His own thoughts, and show 
to me the meaning of His blessed plans for man 
as set forth in His Holy Word. “ The paren¬ 
thesis of sin ”—I could not get away from that 
thought. While debating it in my surrendered 
mind, there came to me a companion impres¬ 
sion—a threefold redemption: of soul, of body, 
of the earth, through the sufferings and death 
of Jesus Christ: “ Who gave himself for us, 
that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and 
purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous 
of good works ” (Titus 2: 14) ; with the Lord 
“ there is plenteous redemption ” (Psa. 130: 7) ; 
“ For the redemption of their soul is precious ” 
(Psa. 49: 8) ; “ We ourselves groan within our¬ 
selves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the re- 

21 


22 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 

demption of our body” (Rom. 8:23); “ We, 
according to bis promise, look for new heavens 
and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous¬ 
ness” (II Pet. 3:13); “And I saw a new 
heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven 
and the first earth were passed away ” (Rev. 
21 : 1 ). 

Spiritual death came first, the soul being 
dead in trespasses and in sins before the body 
died. Naturally the redemption of the soul has 
been entered upon first. Though saved in our 
souls, we groan in our sin-diseased bodies. 
Orthodox Christianity has not seen fit to accept 
the plain statements of Holy Writ as to bodily 
healing, such as, “ Who healeth all thy dis¬ 
eases,” although quite ready to accept the for¬ 
mer part of the verse, “ Who forgiveth thine 
iniquities” (Psa. 103:3); and again, “Him¬ 
self took our infirmities, and bare our sick¬ 
nesses ” (Matt. 8: IT). And yet, with cleared 
mental skies, and the new eyes given me, I 
could see it—the body brought under the blood! 
This was not necessarily, as I saw it, a modern 
miracle. To me was given to see clearly very 
natural processes by which the benefits of the 
atonement of Christ could be applied to the 
saving of the body. My attention was called to 
the Lord’s own word which says, “ Let your 
moderation be known unto all men. The Lord 


“THE PARENTHESIS OF SIN” 23 


is at hand ” (Phil. 4:5). I saw that this meant, 
among other things, that the Christian is ex¬ 
pected to, by the grace of God, hold his body 
under. Into whatever excesses others may go, 
the Christian is to he temperate in all things. 
Whether he “ eat or drink,” or whatever he 
does, he is to “ do all to the glory of God ” (I 
Cor. 10: 31). The manifest presence of Jesus 
does not add to His infinite power to help men. 
Though no longer manifest in the flesh, He is 
still equally able to heal the flesh-man. “ I am 
the Lord, I change not” (Mai. 3: 6). “ Jesus 
Christ the same yesterday, to-day and forever ” 
(Heb. 13:8). He never leaves nor forsakes 
us. He is the good friend of suffering human¬ 
ity to-day as in the days of His sad sojourn on 
the earth. 

Thus it was that I saw by the Lord’s grace 
we could “ present our bodies a living sacri¬ 
fice,” bring them into subjection, and hold them 
under, until our moderation itself would result 
in that better health and fuller strength of tem¬ 
perate living. In other words, I saw divine 
health as something far better than divine heal¬ 
ing! Through the observance of these two 
scriptural admonitions I beheld men living as 
redeemed souls in redeemed bodies. The 
scheme, as I saw it, comprehended cleansed 
bodies, day by day; daily exercise; deep breath- 


24 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


ing; proper dieting; slow eating; the elimina¬ 
tion of all false stimulants; all forms of tobacco 
banished for the sake of the redeemed body— 
the temple of the Holy Spirit; full victory over 
lust, and the withholding of the body from all 
those places in which the Christian could never 
expect to find the Christ—and all this “your 
reasonable service ” for the care of that body 
for which He died on the cross. 

Such a soul—saved from sin, living in such 
a body—redeemed from all rough treatment for 
the glory of the Redeemer, would naturally call 
for an environment wholly congenial, and that 
was shown to me—the earth on which we dwell 
completely renovated, remodeled, redeemed ! 
The air was changed; the seasons were differ¬ 
ent; extremes of heat and cold were no more; 
vegetation underwent a tremendous alteration; 
the leaves of the trees were now really “ for the 
healing of the nations;’’ the malaria was no 
more; impurities had departed; all waters were 
“ living waters;” germs had emigrated; disease 
was dead; sorrow and sighing had fled away; 
all pain had ceased, and the fountain of all 
tears had dried up! 

Thus I could see in a new light the long 
train of human suffering and sorrow, pain and 
anguish which all mortals now share; and the 
eternal struggle going on everywhere, among 



“THE PARENTHESIS OF SIN” 25 


all peoples, to shake off the galling yoke of sin, 
and the distressing thraldom of Satan. One 
by one there filed past me in sad, solemn silence 
the long line of pathetic, if desperate, attempts 
of men through the added ages to be free. The 
effort through religion, from Abraham to the 
cross, and from the cross till now. The sundry 
shades of religious remedies as offered by Baal- 
ites, Babylonians, Egyptians, Grecians, Romans, 
Christians; sundry “ Cults,” orders, lodges; 
Eddys, Russells, Mormonism and “ modern¬ 
ism.” While the cross stood out and up above 
them all, even under the magic effect of its 
crimson drippings, only partial relief had come 
to suffering humanity. 

I saw armed hordes, more than Mohamme¬ 
dan, determined to put down the wrong and lift 
up the right. There was knighthood in its bril¬ 
liant bravery defending the weak and support¬ 
ing the cause of the helpless. On came the 
gradual evolution of unfolding civilization in 
all its varied phases. I saw the rise and fall of 
art with its clutch at man’s very heart; and the 
reign of law under Roman power, just as art 
rose under Grecian touch. I beheld the birth 
and growth and dominancy of a mighty educa¬ 
tional system, swaying the leading nations, and 
crystallizing at its best in the haughty heart of 
the “ iron nation ” But failure followed them 


26 NEW VISION OP ANOTHER HEAVEN 


all. Even when all the forces known to man 
had centered in the nation of iron will, all 
was lost, and Germany sank into failure and 
shame. 

Then once more a voice soft as an angel’s 
whispered, Even as the individual must come 
to the end of his row—the limit of his human 
strength—and hoist the white flag of helpless¬ 
ness before he can be saved, just so must na¬ 
tion by nation hew out its stubborn, determined 
way to the end of its strength, and cry out in 
its utter helplessness before the age shall end, 
and Christ shall come to cut short the work in 
righteousness! “ For he will finish the work, 
and cut it short in righteousness: because short 
work will the Lord make upon the earth ” 
(Rom. 9:28). “ Now, therefore, be ye not 

mockers, lest your bands be made strong; for I 
have heard from the Lord God of hosts a con¬ 
sumption, even determined upon the whole 
earth” (Isa. 28:22). In the light of man’s 
utter extremity (“ Without Me ye can do noth¬ 
ing”) thus seen, the daily newspaper reports 
of the thousand and one proposals of smart men, 
great men, rich men, experienced men, good 
men, and even godly men—proposals by which 
to reconstruct the home-life; eliminate the social 
rot; purge politics; reorganize the school sys¬ 
tem; restore confidence; reestablish industrial, 


“THE PARENTHESIS OF SIN” 27 


commercial and financial conditions, brought to 
my face the smile of pity, and to my heart the 
throb of sympathy—man proposing a hopeless 
task! Humanity is not functioning normally 
at any single activity. “ The whole head is 
sick, and the whole heart faint.” “ Men’s 
hearts failing them for fear of those things 
which shall come upon the earth.” The whole 
world is sick—sin-sick. “ It is Christ or 
chaos.” Apart from Him there is no hope—in 
Him there is all hope. I was shown that un¬ 
less men of our day shall look to Him, the 
Great Physician, for recovery, soon shall he 
heard the crashing of kingdoms, the collapse of 
systems, and the downfall of nations. 

“ The parenthesis of sin! ” A little space of 
human selfishness! A prodigal’s sporting for 
a season! For the time stubborn human will 
thwarting the divine. The divine plans and 
purposes suspended temporarily. The will of 
God yet to become supreme. “ Thy will he 
done on earth as it is in heaven.” The human 
will is to he subjugated. Man will yet capitu¬ 
late, voluntarily. He will see his blunder, con¬ 
fess, surrender. Till then God is helpless with¬ 
out He forces loyalty. The power to choose 
has ever been man’s from the beginning. 
Whereas he used it once against his God and 
contrary to his own best interests, he will yet 


28 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


exercise that same power of choice in coming 
back to the Father’s honse. There and then 
confessing his sins, he will receive full pardon 
and blessed restoration. Until then man is liv¬ 
ing in “ the parenthesis of sin.” Once that 
parenthesis has passed, human development 
goes on unhindered unto perfection, that goal 
which mortals have so long sought in vain under 
a regime rendering its achievement, or its be- 
stowment, utterly out of the question. “ The 
restoration of all things! ” “ And he shall send 
Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto 
you: whom the heaven must receive until the 
times of the restitution of all things, which 
God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy 
prophets since the world began ” (Acts 3: 20, 
21). That’s it! Then the “ parenthesis of 
sin ” will pass—thank God! Till then, u Ex¬ 
cept the Lord build the house, they labour in 
vain that build it ” (Psa. 127: 1). 

“ Many shall be purified, and made white, 
and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: 
and none of the wicked shall understand; but 
the wise shall understand” (Dan. 12:10). 


Ill 


A PANORAMIC PICTURE 


u 


This know also, that in the last days perilous times 
shall come. * * But evil men and seducers shall 

wax worse and worse, deceiving and leing deceived”— 
II Timothy 3:1, 13. 


A HE continuity of my vision seemed al¬ 
most interrupted by the touch as if of 
an angel, pointing to the panoramic 
picture of the whole earth. In looking I saw 
the many races of earth seemingly vying with 
each other in a self-determined destruction of 
self-indulgence. Drinks, eats, smokes, lusts and 
pleasures were holding sway with an abandon 
hound to shock any hut the most careless, reck¬ 
less, heedless of humanity. My normal mind 


reasserted itself for the moment, for I remem¬ 
bered a table of figures pasted in the hack of 
my Bible. It shows that the American people 
spend annually for chewing gum, $50,000,- 
000.00; for soft drinks, $350,000,000.00; for 
face powders, etc., $750,000,000.00; for chew¬ 
ing tobacco and snuff, $800,000,000.00; for 
cigars and cigarettes, $1,310,000,000.00; for 
joy rides, races and pleasure resorts, $3,000,- 
000,000.00; for lust, $3,000,000,000.00; for 
food luxuries, $5,000,000,000.00, making 

29 


a 



30 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


total of $25,700,000,000.00! What are war 
debts beside these enormous extravagances ? 

In all directions this black scene loomed up. 
The old and the young; the male and the 
female; the rich and the poor; the white and 
the coloured; the wise and the foolish—all were 
madly whirling in a maelstrom of self-satisfac¬ 
tion. I saw crime increasing all over the world, 
even in great American cities, at an alarming 
rate, in some instances by ten thousand arrests 
in a year. I saw children throwing off parental 
authority, and at the same time beheld parental 
neglect of the born, and murdering of the un¬ 
born. I saw the child banished from many a 
home where the lap-dog took its place. In the 
refined homes of the intelligent rich I saw not 
more than two or three children, whereas in the 
homes of the foreigners, the poor, the crim¬ 
inals, there were from six to a dozen, living 
in filth, sin and shame! Then saw I the in¬ 
evitable results of the worst conquering the 
best in time unless a fundamental evil is 
speedily remedied. As the kaleidoscope of 
events turned, I saw clubdom crush the light, 
love and life out of thousands of once happy 
homes, and in their places little hells set up on 
the earth. I saw unwarranted extravagance, 
the gentle brother of greed, engender family 
friction, and finally fling with cruel heartless- 


A PANORAMIC PICTURE 


31 


ness heads of homes behind the bars of disgrace. 
I saw distressing domestic infelicity hold sway, 
eventuating in damnable divorces. I saw friv¬ 
olous, fickle, frolicking young womanhood em¬ 
boldened and made brazen as it hared itself in 
disgusting familiarity with men, till woman’s 
highest, priceless virtue died a willing death. 
I saw greed grow greater till the tyrant mas¬ 
tered all the finer feelings, and murdered man’s 
consideration for man. I saw blatant scepti¬ 
cism stalk forth from the ranks of the Church 
of God, and scoff cynically at the sacred and 
the divine. I saw old-time respect for age die, 
and reverence for the religious fade into hold 
blasphemy. 

Gradually the veil of futurity seemed to open 
wider, and my astonished gaze caught sight of 
the international plight. Jealousy boiled, fear 
fumed, hate steamed, intrigue grew, suspicion 
increased, treaties were utterly ignored, greed 
gained the day, selfishness soared, friendship 
faded, treachery triumphed, Satan seized the 
reins of national affairs, and demons seemed to 
usher in pandemonium! 

Dazed and confused by the procession of 
these startling scenes that paraded before my 
astonished eyes, I became unable to longer fix 
my gaze steadfastly upon the moving panorama 
of modern changes for the worse. The auto- 


32 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


matically closing, tired eyes seemed to give the 
mind its chance to assert itself in calling up 
such scriptures as fitted into the awful proces¬ 
sion of casualties, catastrophes and cataclysms, 
and I record them here: 

“ This know also, that in the last days peril¬ 
ous times shall come. For men shall be lovers 
of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, 
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthank¬ 
ful, unholy, without natural affection, truce- 
breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, de- 
spisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, 
high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than 
lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but 
denying the power thereof; from such turn 
away ” (II Tim. 3:1-5). “For the time will 
come when they will not endure sound doctrine, 
but after their own lust shall they heap to them¬ 
selves teachers, having itching ears; and they 
shall turn away their ears from the truth, and 
shall be turned unto fables ” (II Tim. 4: 3, 4). 
“ Let no man deceive you by any means; for 
that day shall not come except there come a fall¬ 
ing away first, and that man of sin be revealed, 
the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth 
himself above all that is called God, or that is 
worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the 
temple of God, showing himself that he is 
God 75 (II Thess. 2:3, 4). “Now the Spirit 


A PANORAMIC PICTURE 


33 


speaketli expressly, that in the latter times some 
shall depart from the faith, giving heed to se¬ 
ducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speak¬ 
ing lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience 
seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, 
and commanding to abstain from meats, which 
God hath created to be received with thanksgiv¬ 
ing of them which believe and know the truth ” 
(I Tim. 4: 1-3). “ But evil men and seducers 

shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being 
deceived. But continue thou in the things 
which thou hast learned and hast been assured 
of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; 
and that from a child thou hast known the 
Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise 
unto salvation through faith which is in Christ 
Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of 
God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 
for correction, for instruction in righteousness; 
that the man of God may be perfect, thor¬ 
oughly furnished unto all good works ” (2 Tim. 
3:13-17). 

Then, lo, all was dark! The whole earth 
seemed enveloped in Egyptian blackness almost 
feelable. The air seemed heavy beyond much 
further endurance; a creepy feeling came over 
me as if hideous ghosts were lurking near. The 
earth shook, and all on it seemed to be trem¬ 
bling, tottering, crashing, falling. From every- 


34 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


where, or from nowhere imagination pictured 
(or was it real?) the approach of creeping spir¬ 
its of evil, and they seemed to break forth into 
hellish howls that rent the sultry air. Now 
lurid lightnings flashed, and mighty peals of 
angry thunder rent the air. Nature was en¬ 
raged ! Violence filled the earth! Evil ap¬ 
peared to be triumphant! Woes were now 
pouring out upon the earth. “ And I beheld, 
and heard an angel flying through the midst of 
heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, 
woe, to the inhabiters of the earth! ” (Rev. 
8: 13). “ Woe to the inhabiters of the earth, 

and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto 
you, having great wrath, because he knoweth 
that he hath but a short time ” (Rev. 12: 12). 
It seemed that men were actually being trans¬ 
formed into demons! They began to torment 
and torture one another with utmost cruelty 
and hellish delight. God seemed gone; the 
Churches appeared abandoned, with doors 
locked—the followers of Christ evidently 
slackening their zeal for God, “ falling away,” 
and forfeiting their good influence upon the 
ungodly; the reign of Satan seemed imminent; 
the awful tribulation appeared to be ap¬ 
proaching ! 

Rut in the climactic hour of that horrible 
scene which no mortal could portray with pen 


A PANORAMIC PICTURE 


35 


or put into type,—a scene of pitch blackness but 
for the furious flashes of lightning—the light 
of God’s holy word enabled me to interpret this 
horrible scene of hell-hounds turned loose, and 
the unspeakable devilish deeds of human hor¬ 
rors now being enacted in the darkness, out of 
which came pitiable cries of pain and anguish 
actually soul-sickening! The prophet Isaiah 
seemed to speak to me, saying, “ For, behold, 
the Lord will come with fire, and with his 
chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger 
with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. 
For by fire and by his sword will the Lord 
plead with all flesh; and the slain of the Lord 
shall be many” (Isa. 66:15, lfi). Then I 
could hear Daniel saying, “ And at that time 
shall Michael stand up, the great prince, which 
standeth for the children of thy people; and 
there shall be a time of trouble, such as never 
was since there was a nation even to that same 
time; and at that time thy people shall be de¬ 
livered, every one that shall be found written 
in the book” (Dan. 12:1). This message 
from Daniel was followed closely by our Lord’s 
own proclamation, sounded out in clear tones, 

“ For then shall be great tribulation, such as 
was not since the beginning of the world to this 
time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those 
days should be shortened, there should no flesh 


36 NEW .VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days 
shall be shortened ” (Math. 24: 21, 22). 

The very sad fact about the Tribulation, at 
present, is, that Satan has chloroformed multi¬ 
tudes of good people, among them many most 
excellent ministers of the gospel, so that they 
do not believe in the early approach of a 
“ time of trouble,” x as is described in God’s 
Word. They are blind optimists, able to see 
only “ the good.” Their daily slogan is, “ The 
world is growing better and better all the 
time.” Thus the basal question of our day is: 
God’s Word, or man’s opinion? The pro¬ 
nounced tendency of our time is toward ego¬ 
ism. “ The Master Key,” “ The Unity Cir¬ 
cle,” “ New Thought,” “ Christian Science,” 
etc., place the fullest possible emphasis on the 
human will, and claim that by due exercise of 
man’s will, he becomes the supreme shaper of 
his own destiny. This is, undoubtedly, Satan’s 
shrewd device to destroy faith in God, and to 
grow confidence in man; whereas St. Paul says, 

Have no confidence in the flesh ” (Phil. 3:3). 

The only safety lies in accepting the Bible 
statements that a Tribulation, the horrors of 
which will surpass anything the world ever 
has yet experienced, is coming upon the earth, 
and that all men should prepare to escape it 
(I Thess. 4:13-18). 


IY 

THE FACE OF A MAN-GOD 


“ I will be like the Most High .”— Isaiah 14:14. 

“ Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that 
is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as 
God, sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself 
that he is God ”—II Tiiessalonians 2:4. 

T HEIST appeared a picture—the plain 
outline picture of a man’s face. 
Hotliino; like it could be conceived. 
Its hideousness was simply indescribable. 
Strong lines were intermingled with those of 
heartlessness and horror. It was an inhuman 
face. It made one think intuitively of the 
very devil himself. It was an easy leap of the 
mind from this face of unspeakable meanness 
and unsurpassable passion and cruelty, to the 
Bible picture of the Antichrist. It must be 
he. It could be none other. The climax of 
human depravity was pictured before me. It 
gradually dawned upon me what it all meant. 
My mind turned now to the Word of God, just 
as it had so frequently done before during the 
vision. I recalled the words: “ Let no man de¬ 
ceive you by any means: for that day shall not 

come, except there come a falling away first, 

37 


\ 


38 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


and that man of sin be revealed, the son of 
perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself 
above all that is called God, or that is wor¬ 
shipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the tem¬ 
ple of God, showing himself that he is God. 
And now je know what withholdeth that he 
might be revealed in his time. For the mystery 
©f iniquity doth already work: only he who 
now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the 
way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, 
whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit 
of his mouth, and shall destroy with the bright¬ 
ness of his coming: even him whose coming is 
after the working of Satan, with all power and 
signs and lying wonders, and with all deceiv- 
ableness of unrighteousness in them that 
perish; because they received not the love of 
the truth, that they might be saved ” (II Thess. 
2:3, 4, 6-10). “ And he shall speak great 

words against the Most High, and shall wear 
out the saints of the Most High, and think to 
change times and laws; and they shall be given 
into his hand until a time and times and the 
dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, 
and they shall take away his dominion, to con¬ 
sume and to destroy it unto the end. And the 
kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the 
kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given 
to the people of the saints of the Most High, 


,THE FACE OF A MAN-GOD 


3^ 


whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and 
all dominions shall serve and obey him 57 (Dan. 
7 :25-27). 

Dazed by the wonderful features of this 
startling vision, I sat in semi-conscious silence 
and pondered. With my biain whirling in its 
bewilderment over the awful prospect im¬ 
pressed upon me, as just related, my soul cried 
out to God for a solution. The answer which 
came to me I readily recall as now I write: 
“ Well may all these horrible scenes to he en¬ 
acted upon the earth seem improbable to you, 
in view of present-day civilization, and the 
strength and prowess of the great and proud 
land in which you live—a nation boasting as it 
does of its history in battle, courage of its sol¬ 
diery, skill in action, boundless resources, mar¬ 
velous organizing powers, tremendous com¬ 
merce, startling financial success, etc., but if 
God he against a nation, who can be for it? 
Is your nation not turning away from Him? 
Have its people not spurned Him ? Have they 
not forgotten His word and forsaken His 
house? Have they not thrown down the home 
altars and turned over family reins to the chil¬ 
dren? Have they not made a gala day out of 
God’s holy Sabbath day? And have they not 
dealt treacherously with each other ? Have 
they not secretly hated one the other? Have 



40 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 

they not fostered selfishness, cultivated greed, 
encouraged extravagance, revelled in luxury, 
and luxuriated in lust? Have they not de¬ 
spised the sacred, surrendered reverence, de¬ 
lighted in divorce, strangled the unborn and 
slaughtered the living? Have they not out¬ 
raged God’s supreme authority ? Have they not 
defied Him to His very face? Has He not 
been patient with them? Has He not warned 
them? Has He not providentially pointed out 
to them the downfall of ancient nations that 
forgot Him? Has He not given to them His 
Word, full of prophecies of the ‘ last days ’ ? 
And now if He shall see fit to withdraw His 
Holy presence from the world which hath al¬ 
ready withdrawn from Him, and leave Satan 
to reign for a period on the earth, after that He 
has taken up therefrom His own who have 
loyally served Him, heard His word, and hon¬ 
oured His Son, why marvel at the Antichrist, 
at the tribulation, at the unequalled horrors to 
come upon men during Satan’s reign upon the 
earth ? ” 

Thus was I made to understand, in part at 
least, and my heart rejoiced with joy unspeak¬ 
able and full of glory over the promise in Holy 
Writ that God’s people should be taken up out 
of the world before that dark and dreadful day 
should come, a day about which the Apostle 


THE FACE OF A MAN-GOD 


41 


Paul says, “I would not have you to he ig¬ 
norant, brethren, concerning them which are 
asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which 
have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus 
died and rose again, even so them also which 
sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For 
this w 7 e say unto you by the word of the Lord, 
that we which are alive, and remain unto the 
coming of the Lord, shall not go before them 
which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall 
descend from heaven with a shout and with the 
voice of the archangel, and with the trump of 
God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. 
Then we which are alive and remain, shall he 
caught up together with them in the clouds, to 
meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever 
he with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one an¬ 
other with these words ” (I Thess. 4: 13-18). 

Then I thought I cried pitiably to the angel 
to tarry longer, and to tell me the time of the 
Antichrist, and of the tribulation, and more 
about what should become of the saints. Some¬ 
how I do not get quite clearly the length of the 
time for the tribulation. The symbolisms were 
obscuring hut the impression made upon my 
mind was that there should he several years of 
the Antichrist’s reign, and Satan’s full control 
of things on the earth. That which was made 
clear was that this should he a time of sorrows 


42 NEW .VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


and horrors which the combined cruelties of 
Nero and the Spanish inquisition did not equal, 
and in comparison with which they would sink 
into utter insignificance! or, as Jesus said, 
“ Except those days should he shortened, there 
should no flesh he saved; hut for the elect’s 
sake those days shall be shortened ” (Matt. 
24: 22). 

But that awful picture—of the face, of the 
reign, of the terrors, of the tragedies, of the 
distress of men and nations, of lawlessness, of 
pandemonium, of hell itself turned loose on the 
earth! I saw it all as the world’s black day 
more dismal than all the darkest nights of earth 
hitherto. A sense of awful doom was settling 
down in human hearts, with distress and de¬ 
spair reigning everywhere. The whole earth 
was being demoralized, while in no relation in 
life could order and composure he found. The 
very air was becoming sulphurous and stifling. 
Evidently the earth was on the verge of some 
mighty and awful change, some horrible cata¬ 
clysm. 

No longer w T as the waning church calling for 
evangelistic services, hence I found myself at 
home with my family in these trying hours. 
Even that sweet and sacred realm of the home 
was being shaken by satanic influence, and 


s 


THE FACE OF A MAN-GOD 


43 


home tenderness, home happiness, and home 
discipline were all most difficult to maintain. 

Then came the black night— that never-to- 
be-forgotten night! Clouds were lowering, and 
stars were shut out. The air was humid and 
heavy, and promised a cyclonic storm at any 
moment. I thought we had dined in unusual 
silence. Our evening prayers were strangely 
solemn, followed by a significant sense of awe. 
The good-night kiss of dear children was one of 
lingering questioning. No one expressed the 
strange apprehension which each felt and be¬ 
trayed. Once all in bed, as it seemed, I who 
write these words could not sleep. The hour 
was far too ominous. Silent prayer, accom¬ 
panied with Scripture quotations, seemed to en¬ 
gage me throughout the long, restless, sleepless 
night. The chickens were crowing vociferously 
now for the coming dawn. The new day would 
soon be breaking. The family might as well be 
awakened to enter upon another day—of what ? 
Depression and dismal questioning ? Or would 
the sun burst forth in a new atmosphere, our 
heaviness of heart leave us, and our normal 
spirits return? We shall see. 

With all the family up and dressed, my next 
thought was of the conditions without—what of 
the night ? The heavy gusts came and went. 
The wild winds sighed, swished and whirled in 


44 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


a mournful dirge. The heaviness was still 
awfully depressing. But, look! The clouds 
were actually parting! And, yonder was really 
a stray star, struggling out! It seemed a ray 
of welcome hope in an hour of horrors. Even 
while I watched and sighed and prayed, the 
clouds gave way, and the star-spangled heavens 
brought welcomed relief. 

Yet it was a strange sensation—facing we 
know not what, while conscious that some most 
unusual event was about to take place. The 
only similar experience I could recall was that 
of facing an awful cyclone, heading toward 
me, it seemed, bringing death and destruction 
in its path. At that time the thought was one 
of greatest possible solemnity—what will it 
mean to soon stand face to face with God ? So 
here the thought was not one of fear, but rather 
one of strange awe, of wonder, of solemnity— 
what did the next hour hold for us ? 


MEETING THE LORD IN THE AIR 


“ Then we which are alive and remain, shall he 
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet 
the Lord in the air ”—I Thessalonians 4:17. 


HEN far out-at some distant point of 
space was seen a golden glow. I had 
seen the northern lights, and the Au¬ 
rora Borealis, hut never had I seen anything 
comparable to this strange light in the heavens. 
It grew. And it grew not only in area, but in 
intensity and distinctness. The phenomenon 
was so very striking that I ran back into the 
room and called my wife and children to see 
it. We stood on the wide front porch with our 
heads upturned, gazing intently at the increas¬ 
ing glory of the heavenly glow. Now in the 
center could be seen a spot of greater bright¬ 
ness. It, too, enlarged, as if the whole glow 
with its strange center of greater brightness, 
was coming towards the earth. In silent won¬ 
der we watched. Whatever our thoughts, no 
one, for the present, dared to speak a word of 
comment. Perhaps the feeling in each breast 
was the same—this is the climax of the strange 
scenes and sensations of the last several days! 



46 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


Yes, undoubtedly the glow was approaching. 
And the central figure was now assuming, or 
perhaps I had better say, showing, shape. The 
first word spoken was by a child, a little girl 
of eight summers. “ A man! ” she ejaculated 
in monosyllables. All seemed satisfied to ac¬ 
cept her impression and remain silent still 
longer, wondering how much closer the glow 
with its strange central figure would come to us, 
and what could be the object of the coming! 
While such questions were in all our minds, and 
stirring our hearts, the glow came so much 
nearer that for the first time the dim outlines 
of myriads of beings in garments of light could 
be seen. One of the daughters, a dear lover of 
music, softly whispered, “ That music ! ” Dim, 
soft, sweet, soul-touching, came the strains of 
song. Like the climax of a great crescendo 
came later the shouts of angel voices, rending 
the air. “ Glory to God in the highest; a sword 
on earth; battle and blood and death below; 
peace, and rest, and joy, and victory, and glory 
above! ” 

The central figure now became clearer, and so 
surely was it like unto the Son of Man, that 
even the baby boy, not over four years old, yet 
familiar with the pictures of the Saviour, show¬ 
ing a halo around His head, pointed upward, 
and in baby language cried out, “ Bu’ful 


MEETING THE LORD IN THE AIR 47 

Jesus! ” Each heart began to leap and throb 
and thrill with a new and strange ecstasy! 
Would He come on to the earth? Or, would 
He stop short in the air ? What did it all mean, 
anyway ? 

Then there fell on our attentive ears the loud 
blast of a trumpet that sounded and resounded, 
till the far-reaching echoes could be heard with 
wonderful and startling effect. The children 
all jumped—and who could blame them? The 
baby screamed and clutched at the mother’s 
side. The older children shuddered and grew 
pale in the dim starlight brightened by the 
brilliant glow. Then lo, and behold, from one 
of the cemeteries of the city, the location of 
which was easily"visible from the hill on which 
our home is situated, there arose figures—men, 
women and children could now be discerned in 
the company. Gabriel had sounded his trumpet, 
and the dead in Christ were evidently arising 
from their graves! Up and up, they rise. See, 
they are going into the glow! And now, be¬ 
hold, in the light of the great glow, even their 
faces are seen, and how they smile and shine! 
How they do sing! 

Standing in awe, and thrilled with such 
startling mysteries, the song of saints passing 
through the air, soothes us and reassures us. 
“ Let every kindred, every tribe, on this ter- 


48 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 

restrial ball, to Him all majesty ascribe, and 
crown Him Lord of all! ” We could bear tbe 
old, familiar words. How beautiful! We al¬ 
most dare to join in tbe great old bymn, now 
sung as we never bad beard it sung before. 

But bebold! There they come from tbe sec¬ 
ond cemetery of tbe city! We note the throngs 
meeting in tbe air. And now from tbe Na¬ 
tional Cemetery come tbe old soldiers of the 
nation, not only, but evidently soldiers of tbe 
Cross of Christ as well. They are singing, 
u We are marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful 
Zion; we are marching upward to Zion, tbe 

beautiful city of God.” 

Then lo, they come up from tbe horizon on 
all sides—each band singing a new song, 
till tbe whole heaven is ringing with tbe re¬ 
sounding songs of saints who have become re¬ 
embodied, and are now on their way to meet 
tbe Saviour in tbe air. Our own souls are so 
enraptured that we long to form a part of the 
grand chorus, and to join in tbe praise, glory, 
and honour being ascribed to tbe Son of God 
who has come for His saints. 

Intuitively we nestle closer together, tbe five 
children at home surrounding their parents. 
Fear is now all gone. Love fills tbe air. Not 
a cloud is now in sight, many as there have been 
—His chariots! Never did the stars shine so 


MEETING THE LORD IN THE AIR 49 


brigLt or twinkle so perceptibly—away from 
the glow. Our very hearts seem changed in 
the twinkling of an eye. The coarser grains of 
our mortal natures seem to be replaced by some 
finer texture of being. Somehow we felt our¬ 
selves growing more ethereal. The tendency 
was distinctly upw T ard. There comes another 
mighty blast of the angel’s trumpet, and we 
thrill afresh with an ecstasy impossible to de¬ 
scribe ! The sensation that sweeps over our en¬ 
raptured souls is no longer one of awe, but de¬ 
cidedly one of glory! Then we, too, are caught 
up to meet the Lord in the air! As a united 
family we are ascending—and yet not all. 
Where are the absent from home, dear ones? 
Ah, there they come! And what a meeting! 
Old saints of our families long gone from earth, 
and those just caught up—see them meet, recog¬ 
nize each other, shout, sound out their loud 
Hallelujahs! laugh, smile, embrace, and praise 
Him who had made it all possible. Aes, the 
dear ones (all who are redeemed), are jour¬ 
neying with us. 

We arise higher and higher, and fairly shout 
while passing through the air, “ farewell, fare¬ 
well, sweet hour of prayer,” for now all prayer 
has turned into praise! “ Let everything that 

hath breath, praise the Lord! Praise ye the 
Lord!” (Psa. 150:6). 


VI 


GOING TO THE MARRIAGE OF THE 

LAMB 

“And he saith unto me, Write f Blessed are they 
ivhich are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. 
And he saith unto me, These are the true say mgs of 
God ”— Revelation 19:9. 

W HAT a throng! What myriads of 
men, women and children! And 
look! there is a relative from an¬ 
other town! And see! an acquaintance from 
another State! We speak, we shake hands, we 
even embrace—in the air! We cannot refrain. 
No longer are we able to restrain our joy. One 
word is on every lip—Glory! We shout it out, 
and now we do not care. Timidity and the 
man-fearing spirit have been left behind on the 
earth! 

On, and on we move, ever towards the one 
center of a great mass of mingling, glorified 
beings. All eyes are upon the Lord. Every 
knee would now bow to Him. Every tongue 
is keen to confess Him Lord of lords and King 
of kings. But we do not reach Him. He is 

ever just beyond us, and evidently is leading us 

50 


THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB 51 


on to some point of destination. Tet it is 
heaven just to be near Him, and in this happy 
company of the redeemed. 

Our daughters are looking about for their 
earthly companions. A look of surprise comes 
over their radiant faces as they recognize, not 
far away, certain acquaintances with whom 
they had possessed very little in common, while 
on the earth. But where are certain of their 
chums? Chums who tempted Christian girls 
to enter w T orldly, sinful circles? Can it be? 
Hot a social high-flier in the crowd? The mind 
of the father turns, even while passing through 
the air, to the words of the Apostle John, 
“ Love not the world, neither the things that 
are in the world. If any man love the world 
the love of the Father is not in him. For all 
that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and 
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not 
of the Father, but is of the world. And the 
world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but 
he that doeth the will of God abideth forever ” 
(I John 2: 15-17). The saints in this company 
have kept their robes clean and white, and free 
from the wrinkles and spots of worldliness 
(Eph. 5:27). Only “ the wise virgins’ 7 are 
here, going to the “ marriage supper of the 
Lamb.” The “ foolish virgins ” are left be¬ 
hind, in the Egyptian darkness of the poor old 


52 NEW .VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


devil-dominated earth, and they must now pass 
through the terrible tribulation with those sin¬ 
ners who have been so congenial to them! They 
have run together in “ society/ 7 why not now 
suffer together in the tribulation ? 

The songs continue with our flight. The 
chorus swells, and “ like a mighty army moves 
the Church of God/ 7 u the Bride of Christ/ 7 
going, Rebecca-like, to meet her Beloved! There 
is one objective. Our Leader’s eye is on the 
goal. “ Where He leads, we’ll follow,” is now 
being sung. As far out as the human ear can 
hear, the tones are wafted in one grand, swell¬ 
ing chorus of beautiful submission to the will 
and leading of the Master. 

Many angels have been mingling with us all 
the time since we took our flight from the earth. 
One of these comes near us. We bow humbly 
before this bright, beautiful heavenly being, 
and then dare to inquire, “ Where are we 
going, if you are pleased to tell ? 77 “ To the 

marriage supper of the Lamb/ 7 the angel re¬ 
plied. Then it was really true! The rumour 
of redeemed saints has been confirmed by an 
angel of God! Hallelujah! This one joy is 
worth all the sacrifices we made on earth for 
the Master and His glorious cause! Already 
we have awakened with His likeness, and our 
souls are satisfied! This is fullness of joy— 


THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB 53 


so far; our capacity shall increase—it must, for 
so much is ahead. 

Through space—illimitable space! Flying 
without wings! Moving without effort! That 
supreme ruler of the man, will, even seems in¬ 
active. How strange! The compelling force 
is exterior. It is magnetic in its action. The 
words of John in his gospel come to mind: 
“ And I, if I he lifted up from the earth, will 
draw all men unto me” (John 12:32). But 
many would not he drawn unto Him; they did 
not get eternal life; they are not with us leav¬ 
ing the world of sin, suffering, sorrow behind, 
and on the way to “ the marriage supper of the 
Lamb.” So, no wonder we are drawn, for yon¬ 
der is our Magnet—it is Jesus, blessed Jesus ! 
He is the center of every will in this throng, 
the idol of all its hearts, and the propelling 
power of this Bride-to-be of the Lamb. 

On we speed, with no air-currents to inter¬ 
fere ; with no atmospheric storms to impede our 
progress. Hor are there any chilling winds to 
cause discomfiture. Where He goes it is Spring¬ 
time ! All elements obey Him. He, the Giver 
of all laws, governs those laws at will. 

What a bridal party is this! It is the climax 
of all the bridal parties that ever functioned 
before! And the Bridegroom who is leading 
on is the concentrated essence of all manliness, 


54 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


the quintessence of all strength, and the acme 
of all greatness—the one perfect Bridegroom! 
Even so, in this marriage supper of the Lamb 
is a full consummation of all that is beautiful, 
lovely, charming, heart-thrilling in matrimony. 

“ See! See! ” shout the shining hosts ahead 
of us. All eyes are now riveted on some new 
glory. What light! It is brighter than the sun, 
but without the sums harshness. It is soft as 
the moon, hut without her tameness. A bright¬ 
ness that illumines gloriously, yet never shuts 
the eyes of the beholders. How wonderful! 
What can it be? But look! We are going 
right toward it, and, indeed, into it! Then ap¬ 
pears the dim outlines of a new world. Swiftly 
passing through space, we can soon see the de¬ 
tails of a portion of this planet, resplendent 
with its effulgence. High mountains loom up 
in the distance far ahead of us. Plains seem 
to spread out at their feet. Faster and faster 
we flit through the air, and closer and closer 
we come to this marvelous stranger-world, all 
so new to us, though venerable with age, as we 
later learned. The sight we see fills us with 
wonder, admiration and awe. And what ec¬ 
stasy ! The first sight of the ocean is nothing 
compared to it. The inspiration of some Pike’s 
Peak summit is insignificant in comparison. 
The sensation is unlike anything we have ever 


THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB 55 


before experienced. Astronomers have created 
a big world sensation on discovering a new star 
through the telescope; but we are beholding a 
new world with our own eyes, so near at hand 
that we actually begin to view its very details! 

Then a strange sound falls upon our ears, 
and a new thrill fills our souls. It is the music- 
song from the new sphere. But what voices! 
In no respect is there the least detectable de¬ 
fect. All is perfect. These voices could never 
have been tainted with disease, nor tarnished 
by sin’s touch. Nor is there any lack of vol¬ 
ume. All parts, too, are there. Such a chorus! 
The whole is sustained with some kind of musi¬ 
cal instrument, but no pipe organ ever pro¬ 
duced such strains as that! How far away 
could such music be heard ? It must be very 
far removed from us as we move on towards 
it. Both in the exalted conception of the 
musical theme, and in the marvelous sweetness 
of its melody, this music is simply entrancing 
—for it is perfect music! Some of the trained 
and skillful musicians of our immediate party 
now made a most interesting discovery—there 
was not a minor note in all the scores! Every 
note is optimistic! The thrill of a victory 
march characterizes it. No wonder! This is 
that unfallen planet which first stood the test, 
and throughout it remained loyal to God, there- 



56 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


fore never fell! Hallelujah! Here Satan was 
more than matched. No sin has ever entered 
here. Bless God, He has not been deserted by 
all His sentient, intelligent, responsible crea¬ 
tures. Here are some to whom He gave the 
power of choice, and they have used it well, and 
for His glory, and for their own eternal hap¬ 
piness. The little earth just left by us was the 
only prodigal planet—thank the Lord! All the 
thousands upon thousands of loyal planets have 
stood the test, and thus proved the infinite wis¬ 
dom of God’s plan. This is doubtless a part of 
those u other sheep” (John 10:16) of whom 
Jesus spoke lovingly and tenderly, and we are 
to meet with them soon, and they, doubtless, He 
will bring with Him as later He goes to the old 
earth to make out of it “ a new earth.” 

It is on this aged ; honoured and long-glorified 
planet that the marriage of the Lamb will take 
place. And just to think! we are nearing the 
location of that transcendent scene! And, 
blessed be God, we shall have some part in the 
unfolding glories of that occasion! He is now 
leading on His Bride, the Church which He re¬ 
deemed with His own blood out of all tribes, 
kingdoms and peoples! To the holy altar we 
are going, where we shall be united in the high¬ 
est bonds of holiest wedlock with our beloved 
Bridegroom! Hallelujah! Amen, and Amen! 



VII 


THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE 

LAMB 

“ Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall 
see him, and they also which pierced him . ,, — Revela¬ 
tion 1:7. 

W E are reaching the planet! And 
such creatures! They have come 
now within our ranks, and they 
and we are mingling as if old friends had met. 
Or, I had better say, as if some older brothers 
and sisters were now meeting some younger ones 
they had never before seen, yet readily recog¬ 
nized them, and most cordially welcomed them 
as well-beloved guests. “ Brother and sister/’ 
did I say ? And yet how could we dare to claim 
kinship with such pure beings ? In form some¬ 
what like unto ourselves, yes; and yet different, 
oh, so different! What that difference was, we 
could sense better than define. Perhaps it was 
akin to that great gulf between the master- 
scholar and the illiterate child. Or maybe it 
could be more nearly expressed by the abyss be¬ 
tween the immaculately pure, and the debauched 
criminal. 


57 


58 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


And yet our robes were now white, and a 
new expression was on all our faces, and we 
realized as never before that we had been 
cleansed from our earthly, fleshly impurities by 
a bath in His blood! That we were, indeed, 
“ redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.” That 
the stain of sin was now gone—0, if we could 
only lose the sting as well! A sting rendered 
severer by a comparison of ourselves with these 
pure beings before us, who never having sinned, 
were confirmed in righteousness and true holi¬ 
ness, and were now, and for a long time past, 
the glorified beings we were only just now be¬ 
ginning to be. Had we not “ in the twinkling 
of an eye ” been u changed ” ? And were we 
not fully conscious that “ this corruption ” had 
already put on “ incorruption,” and “ this 
mortal ” had “ put on immortality,” so that we 
could even now exult in saying, “ Thanks be 
to God, which giveth us the victory through our 
Lord Jesus Christ” (I Cor. 15:57). Yet 
there was the difference! 

It was beautiful and glorious of these won¬ 
derful creatures that they showed no sign of 
any consciousness of the difference between 
themselves and us! Joyously they greeted us, 
and with evident pride of the holy kind pointed 
to their magnificent city, and as we approached 
the nearer, they volunteered to explain to us the 



THE MARRIAGE SUPPER 


59 


plans of the great wedding ceremonies in which 
we were to take so honoured a part. Once in 
their glorious habitation, we found ourselves 
most hospitably entertained. The comforts, 
luxuries, ease, peace, harmony and ecstasy of 
our new surroundings were experiences no mor¬ 
tal could comprehend without seeing them. 
“For since the beginning of the world men 
have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither 
hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he 
hath prepared for him that waiteth for him ” 
(Isa. 64: 4). 

But as I saw the glorious city in my vision, 
it was a real city, with wide streets and straight, 
lined with the most magnificent buildings, the 
architecture and outlines of which were perfect, 
and perfectly entrancing. Hot one harsh line 
could be found. Howhere did colours clash. A 
sky-scraper did not overshadow a shack. All 
was in complete harmony. Everything had the 
most finished appearance imaginable. We could 
think of no change of addition or subtraction. 

Surrounding this city, as I was given to see 
it, were mountains lofty, grand, wonderful! 
With their tall peaks towering heavenward, 
there was, nevertheless, no capping of snow! 
Ho timber line could be seen. The verdure 
thereon rounded out with grandeur complete. 
But I saw plains, too, and one of these in par- 


.60 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


ticular stretched out from the foot of a lofty 
mountain toward, and beside, the city, over¬ 
looking it. It was on this tableland, the in¬ 
habitants explained to us, that the ceremonies 
were to take place. For the august occasion an 
immense outdoor temple had been built. Stately 
columns fringed the edge, and a great rostrum 
had been constructed in the center. This plain 
was so vast, as it ran up to be lost in the moun¬ 
tain slope, and stretched out in two directions 
away from the mountain and the city, that no 
mortal could well calculate its seating capacity. 
Or, more properly, I should say, standing 
capacity, for on this glorious occasion no at¬ 
tendant could allay the ecstatic thrills suffi¬ 
ciently to he satisfied seated! It was to he an 
hour of life and action unprecedented in the his¬ 
tory of the entire universe of God! It would 
be characterized by unparalleled splendour. 
Jesus was here to receive and wed His Bride! 

On entering the city we had noticed it was 
in gala day attire. There was no “ white way,” 
for none would stand any chance to shine in 
such a glory-light as was here. What was it? 
It was utterly unlike any light of the earth. 
And it was continuous, reminding us of the 
promise for our future earth—“ there shall be 
no night there” (Rev. 22:5). The whole 
great city was decorated. Streamers and ban- 


THE MARRIAGE SUPPER 


61 


ners and flags were flying everywhere—red, 
white and gold. The streamers were red, as if 
dipped in blood, the banners were of the purest 
white, as if symbols of purity, and on them was 
the one word love, reminding us of “ His ban¬ 
ner over me was love ” (Songs of Solomon 
2:4). The flags were apparently made of 
gold cloth, and glittered in the soft light of the 
brightly illuminated city. On these flags were 
four words, “ More precious than gold,” re¬ 
minding the Bible student of first Peter 1:17. 

But far more noticeable than the decorations 
were the delegations. These seemed to be asso¬ 
ciated in groups, all happy, smiling, singing. 
They were differently attired, while all of their 
costumes were radically different from our own. 
Evidently these were delegations from different 
unfallen worlds, all here to attend the cere¬ 
monies of the marriage of the Lamb. On in¬ 
quiring we were told that these were, indeed, 
dignitaries, nobles and princes of far-apart 
spheres. They would be assigned parts in the 
ceremonies soon to follow. 

Then, as if by unanimous consent, every one 
on the beautiful streets stopped, and all heads 
were bowed for what seemed to me about five 
minutes, then with uniformity of action every 
head was raised and turned towards the sky, 
as we of the earth would say; and a sight never 


62 NEW .VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


to be forgotten was beheld. High up in the 
heavens could be seen a light brighter than that 
of the sun by a thousand times, yet so much 
softer that it did not hurt our eyes. Soon shin¬ 
ing creatures were discernible, in constant mo¬ 
tion around some central figure. Then heav¬ 
enly music, first very soft and from a great dis¬ 
tance, evidently, was caught by our attentive 
ears. As the mighty host descended, the 
figures became more distinct, and so did the 
music. Down to the great plateau now came 
the procession, the central figure being the Lord 
God Almighty, surrounded with the greatest 
beings of His creation! Jehovah and His 
Hosts of glory! Now on the plateau platform 
in solemn, unparalleled grandeur and dignity, 
God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, and God 
the Son meet and sit upon their thrones of 
unspeakable beauty and transcending glory. 
Choir after choir bursts forth in anthems of 
praise. Between these songs come shouts of 
“ Glory! Glory! Glory to God in the Highest. 
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen and Amen.” 

Before we could fully realize what was tak¬ 
ing place, all the saints from earth were being 
assembled by angel escorts, amidst the cries of 
loud amens, and the shouts of hallelujahs from 
the mighty throng. No one wept, but rather 
bright, beaming faces flashed fire of joy, and 


THE MARRIAGE SUPPER 


63 


tongues shot forth, shouts of praise, while the 
joyful laughter, in ripple after ripple, sounded 
like ten thousand silvery hells of gladness. 

Gabriel on the one side, and Michael on the 
other side, led forward the Bride of the Lamb 
of God till she stood in her immaculate gar¬ 
ments of light and love and victory before her 
espoused Bridegroom. Then “ the Lamb of 
God that taketh awav the sin of the world,” 
arose in His divine dignity, hut beautiful, 
graceful, becoming cordiality, to greet His be¬ 
loved Bride. Then an angel of the highest 
rank, whose name was not revealed to me, spoke 
out in the clearest, sweetest, most touching 
tones: “ Let us be glad and rejoice, and give 
honour to Him; for the marriage of the Lamb 
is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. 
And to her was granted that she should 
be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for 
the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. 
* * * Blessed are they who are called unto 

the marriage supper of the Lamb ” (Rev. 19:7, 
8). All the host of angels in attendance then 
fell upon their knees, and said in the most per¬ 
fect unison: “ Amen: Blessing, and glory, and 
wisdom, and honour, and power, and might, he 
unto our God forever and ever, Amen ” (Rev. 
7:11, 12). Down upon her knees went the 
Bride of Christ with utmost grace and ease, 


64 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


while the Bridegroom lovingly put forth His 
pierced right hand and lifted her up, saying, 
“ Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the 
glory of the Lord is risen upon thee ” (Isa. 
60:1). “ Behold, thou art fair, my love; Be¬ 

hold, thou art fair, thou hast doves’ eyes ” (Song 
of Sol. 1:15). “ Thy teeth are like a flock of 

sheep that are even shorn, which came up from 
the washing; whereof every one hear twins, and 
none is barren among them. Thy lips are like 
a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely; 
thy temples are like a piece of pomegranate 
within thy locks. Thy neck is like the tower 
of David, builded for an armory, whereon there 
hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty 
men. Thy two breasts are like two young roes 
that are twins, which feed among the lilies.” 
“ Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in 
thee” (Song of Solomon 4:2-5, 7). Where¬ 
upon the Bride replied: “ I am my Beloved’s, 
and my Beloved is mine: he feedeth among the 
lilies” (Song of Solomon 6:3). He is “ the 
chiefest among ten thousand”; “He is alto¬ 
gether lovely” (Song of Solomon 5:10, 16). 
A moment of the most awe-filled silence 
ensued. Then there came forth one of 
stately form, wonderful in face—filled with 
light and love, who deliberately stepped 
up towards the Bridegroom with calm as- 


THE MARRIAGE SUPPER 


65 


surance and becoming dignity. All eyes 
were at once riveted upon him. He took bis 
place close up to the Master’s side. He spoke: 
u He that bath the Bride is the Bridegroom: 
but the friend of the Bridegroom, which stand- 
eth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because 
of the Bridegroom’s voice: this my joy there¬ 
fore is fulfilled” (John 3:29). The sweet 
voice of the Bridegroom said, “ Verily I say 
unto you, among them that are bom of women 
there hath not risen a greater than John the 
Baptist” (Matt. 11:11). Then we all knew 
it was the Bridegroom’s “ best man ”—John the 
Baptist, the forerunner of the Christ on the 
earth! Another pause of solemn, almost feel- 
able silence and awe, then a strange voice, one 
that had shaken the earth wfith oftentime thun¬ 
ders of wrath, now in the mightiest, yet tender- 
est tones, spoke out: “ As the Bridegroom re¬ 
joiceth over the Bride, so shall thy God rejoice 
over thee” (Isa. 62:5). The response came 
from the Bride: “ I will greatly rejoice in the 
Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God: for 
he hath clothed me with the garments of salva¬ 
tion, he hath covered me with the robe of right¬ 
eousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with 
ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with 
her jewels” (Isa. 61: 10). Grand old Gabriel, 
he who had heralded the coming of the King 


66 NEW .VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


to earth in the humble mien of a man, spoke: 
“ The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness; 
the voice of the Bridegroom, and the voice of 
the Bride; the voice of them that shall say, 
Praise the Lord of hosts: for the Lord is good; 
for his mercy endureth forever ” (Jer. 33: 11). 

There was one more of those peculiar pauses, 
portending, as we had come to learn, some act, 
or some word of supreme importance. The 
silence was broken as the Holy Spirit pro¬ 
nounced the climactic word of the ceremonies 
which would forever seal the union between our 
Lord and His Bride. He said: “ Thy Maker 
is thy Husband; The Lord of hosts is His name; 
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; the 
God of the whole earth shall He be called ” 
(Isa. 54:5). “ Amen, and Amen,” rang out 

from ten thousand times ten thousand angel 
voices in an anthem full of hallelujahs and 
praise to God in the Highest! Then there 
joined in perfect unison the voices of the dele¬ 
gations from the many unfallen spheres, and 
those of the redeemed of earth—the Bride of 
Christ, making ring as it never had before rung, 
that grand old song of the poor, sin-cursed 
earth, namely, “All hail the power of Jesus’ 
name.” The mighty volume of song whirled 
and swept and gathered strength, till it rent the 
air and pierced the skies as we of the earth 


THE MARRIAGE SUPPER 


67, 


r> 


would say. The love and peace of God that 
passeth all understanding seemed to surge 
through our heaving hearts, and to fill our souls 
with a rapture beyond the power of mortals to 
portray, for heaven itself had taken up its abode 
in the bosoms of the redeemed of the earth! 

What a supreme hour was this! Nothing 
like it had ever taken place so far in our lives. 
Yet, about this hour we had read; to this hour 
we had long looked forward; in our moments 
of religious rhapsody we had experienced a 
foretaste of glory, but in reality our wildest 
dreams were far surpassed. Now our bur¬ 
dens of earth seemed light; now our crosses 
lost their weight; now the sacrifices we had 
made for Jesus seemed insignificant; now the 
hardships of the sin-life were all past, and our 
persecutions and privations, temptations and 
tribulations were over—the glory-life had 
begun! 

To be a part of the Bride of Christ; to be 
actually in the presence of Jesus; to live far 
apart from sin; to feel the thrills of glory in 
our souls—that was Heaven! Not that we 
were now in our Heaven, but that Heaven was 
now in us! How blessed! Such an experi¬ 
ence of unspeakable bliss was well worth all it 
had cost. We had awakened in His likeness, 
and were perfectly satisfied! (Psa. 17:15). 


VIII 


THE BRIDAL TOUR 

“ The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness; the 
voice of the Bridegroom, and the voice of the Bride; 
the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of 
hosts: for the Lord is good; for his mercy endureth 
forever.” —Jeremiah 33 : 11 . 

P ERHAPS careless mortals of earth have 
little realized how very far they are re¬ 
flecting the facts of heaven, God’s home, 
in their daily lives. When we stop to think, 
God is a Father. Perhaps the Holy Spirit is 
the Motherhood of the Godhood (Isa. 66:13, 
compared with John 14:16, 26; 15:26, and 
16:7). And we know that Jesus is the Son of 
God. Paul says: “ For this reason, on bended 
knee I beseech the Father, from whom the 
whole family in Heaven and on earth derives 
its name,” etc. (Eph. 3: 15, Weymouth’s trans¬ 
lation). Thus it is evident that our family life 
is taken from the heavenly. Husband, wife, 
marriage, wedding suppers, are all ideas ex¬ 
pressive of heavenly relations and actions. 
Therefore it is not strange that this grand 

and resplendent scene should have broken up 

68 


THE BRIDAL TOUR 


69 


just as earthly weddings break up—to begin a 
bridal tour! All the bridal tours of earth, those 
of princes and crowned heads, those of the very 
greatest price, pomp and splendour, have their 
climax in the tour of the Lamb and His Bride. 
Just as in earthly marriages, so there were on 
this holy, and blessed occasion, greetings, con¬ 
gratulations, conversations and statements of 
plans for the wonderful tour to take place. 

The angel Gabriel and the great John seemed 
to have in hand all the details, and they laid 
before us the course the divine Bridegroom had 
chosen for His bridal tour. Another long and 
wonderful journey was to be made, and with¬ 
out the slightest jar, hitch or friction. The 
plans would go through without any slips or 
misses. There would be no trains, nor steam¬ 
ships, nor automobiles, nor flying machines. 
Through space we were to pass with the same 
ease, and by the self-same power which bore 
Jesus up and out of sight when He ascended 
to His Bather and to ours. 

Amidst the loud swelling chorus of the 
mighty hosts, as if by the most perfect under¬ 
standing, we swept out into space and sped 
away swiftly toward worlds unknown to mor¬ 
tals, now united forever to their Redeemer- 
Husband. Planet after planet was visited, each 
one filled with “ just men made perfect 57 (Heb. 


70 NEW. .VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


12:23), who needed no repentance, for that' 
they had not sinned. All had been confirmed 
in righteousness, holiness and peace, in their 
Eden experience, when they believed God, 
obeyed God, were loyal to God, rather than to 
the tempter. While all these strange and mar¬ 
velous creatures bore a striking resemblance to 
ourselves, there was very much variety among 
them, and all different from us. And their 
civilizations were incomparably greater than 
ours. There had been no sin in the way of ad¬ 
vancement. No “ fall ” had impeded their 
progress. No hatred had ever been in their 
hearts. No jealousy, no envy, no competition 
had retarded their growth and development. 
No wonder they had advanced so marvelously. 

As the redeemed of earth visited these unfal¬ 
len spheres, great lessons were learned. And 
that which was being learned would soon be 
used in the new earth-life to be. With Satan 
bound at first, then cast later into the bottom¬ 
less pit, there to be sealed forever, so that he 
could come forth no more to tempt and retard 
the nations of the earth, a new and glorious 
civilization would spring up where sin once 
abounded and progress had been made so 
slowly. 

On each and every planet the Bridegroom 
and His Bride were received with a mighty 


THE BRIDAL TOUR 


71 


ovation. The greatest possible preparations 
had everywhere been made to receive ns. The 
splendour of each civilization untouched by sin, 
was on display. Mighty choruses always sang 
us a welcome; gigantic organs, radically differ¬ 
ent from our own, were made to swell with 
glorious melodies. Happy, admiring, adoring, 
worshipping lovers of our Lord always met 
Him and shouted aloud His praise. Angel 
delegations preceded us, and world-delegations 
came forth to welcome us. Each world visited 
stopped its busy activities to take part in the 
most colossal celebrations these unfallen spheres 
had ever before united in giving. One thrill 
followed another, one experience of rhapsody 
gave place to another, till the sin-freed saints 
of earth were intoxicated with the joys of salva¬ 
tion and the glories of being redeemed! How 
little seemed the sacrifices of earth now! How 
small was the price paid for these holy privi¬ 
leges and experiences! How could we ever 
repay Him for these unspeakable ecstasies! 
How glad were we that we had surrendered all 
to Him and for Him, not to think now of the 
glories to be later unfolded in our lives on the 
redeemed and renewed earth! 

And the wonderful Jesus! Ho wonder Paul 
said, “ Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 
have entered into the heart of man, the things 


72 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


which God hath prepared for them that love 
Him ” (I Cor. 2:9). While on earth we could 
appreciate the Spirit’s efforts to reveal the 
glories of Christ Jesus unto us. Now, how¬ 
ever, we saw Him face to face—always Great, 
always “ High and lifted upalways of royal 
dignity; never commonplace; but equally al¬ 
ways wonderfully tender; easily approachable; 
never curt; ever gentle, loving and sympathetic; 
and always teaching. The plans for the com¬ 
ing inauguration of His kingdom on earth He 
outlined in all its details. The gigantic work 
of reorganizing the earth’s civilization—now so 
shaken and shattered to pieces that pandemo¬ 
nium reigned in all parts of His sin-tom foot¬ 
stool, was explained to us, and we saw from the 
many examples of sinless civilizations some¬ 
thing of what would be on our little planet 
when Satan was bound, and the saints should 
inherit the earth. The very secrets of His 
dear, divine, lover-heart He seemed to reveal, 
reminding us of His tender admonition of 
His earthly career: “ Let not your heart be 
troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. 
In my Father’s house are many mansions; if 
it were not so, I would have told you. I go to 
prepare a place for you. And if I go and pre¬ 
pare a place for you, I will come again, and re¬ 
ceive you unto myself; that where I am there 



THE BRIDAL TOUR 


73 


ye may be also” (John 14 : 1 - 3 ). We came to 
know Him. We could understand Him now 
as never before in studying Him through His 
word. We were now one with Him, as He had 
prayed the Father we might be: “ Father, I 
will that they also, whom thou hast given me, 
be with me where I am; that they may behold 
thy glory, which thou hast given me; for thou 
lovest me before the foundation of the world. 
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art 
in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one 
in us” (John 17 : 24 , 21 ). So, He was now 
ours, and we were His. His life was ours, His 
plans were ours—we were truly one. Even His 
work and His glory had become our own; how 
wonderful and how glorious; Hallelujah! Let 
the Lord be magnified! (We who were, or had 
been, Presbyterians and Episcopalians, actually 
forgot it, and all joined in proclaiming His 
praise and making it glorious!) 

Hot a few in the great throng constituting 
the Bride of Christ did not experience so great 
a change in relationship to Jesus, or understand 
Him so much better than formerly; for they 
had studied His word while on earth closely, 
prayerfully, spiritually. Their lives had been 
so completely laid on the altar of perfect devo¬ 
tion to Him, that they underwent much less of 
a change in association with the Saviour. The 


74 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


many hours of sweet communion on earth with 
Him; the sacrifices made for Him; the suffer¬ 
ings undergone in His name—all had combined 
to render them more easily susceptible to His 
influence, and to enable them to understand His 
meaning. It was paying them now to have 
cultivated the Christ on the earthy through the 
study of His Holy Word and constant com¬ 
munion. 

One most delightful feature of the tour was 
the familiarity with conditions everywhere of 
our own dear ones, whom we had met, and who 
were now with us constantly, but who had left 
us on the earth—some long years ago, others 
more recently—and who had spent the inter¬ 
vening time visiting and inspecting and closely 
studying these planets whereon we were, and 
many others, in fact. They knew these un- 
fallen spheres better than they knew the poor 
old world they had left in death. They knew 
the inhabitants, too, and understood their lan¬ 
guage (only one for them all—the language of 
Love!), their customs, their manner of life, and 
their great and glorious civilization, thoroughly 
well; and they took great delight in teaching 
us, and were our interpreters. For, strange to 
say, the citizens of these new worlds could un¬ 
derstand our language, but we could not theirs! 
On inquiring about it we found this would come 


THE BRIDAL TOUR 


75 


later, in the course of our development, and full 
glorification. 

One of the puzzles of our earth-life was now 
solved for us. We had seen so many of earth’s 
bright ones depart. We had so often yielded 
up our very brightest and best; even our most 
religious loved ones—those whom we so much 
needed in the home, in the Church, in the com¬ 
munity, in the State, and in the civilization it¬ 
self. But now how clear! 0 what relief! 

Here they were, advanced students of century- 
old, yea, millenary civilizations of sinless 
spheres, becoming skilled in the arts and 
sciences of these wonderful worlds, and would 
in due time return to the earth with us and 
there introduce all of the best things they had 
gleaned during long years of close study. Thus 
they reminded us of the many bright students 
from China and Japan who had come to far¬ 
away America to study our western, advanced 
civilization, and then to return to their beloved 
lands to introduce the best elements of our na¬ 
tional progress. 

Now w T e understood Jesus our loving Lord, 
as He said, “ Well done, thou good and faithful 
servant: thou hast been faithful over a few 
things, I will make thee ruler over many things. 
Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord ” (Matt. 
25:21). Not that this passage is appropriate 


76 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


here, but that its principle is applicable. These 
brightest and best of our dear ones were best 
fitted to make these new-world studies, and then 
to become leaders in the process of reorganiz¬ 
ing and reconstructing our civilization. 

We found that our darling babies knew more 
than we did, for they, too, bad swept through 
planet after planet, seeing, learning, growing, 
developing, maturing. Strange to say their 
memories had been so quickened that they re¬ 
called every detail of their earthly lives, and as 
I pressed to my heart the lovely form of my 
own first-born, I saw all the beauty and inno- 
cency and grace of those long-ago babyhood 
days in the midst of which she left us. She 
remembered well her nurse, and surprised me 
by calling her name. When on earth she had 
been a great lover of the lilies and she spoke to 
me of the lilies they had in the beautiful worlds 
which she had been visiting all these years. 
Another little darling of some six summers had 
years ago left us, and she who had slipped away 
from us beside the seashore which she so much 
loved, still saw every rippling stream and sil¬ 
very surface of lake or pool. 

It was astonishing to find that the hosts of 
earth, scattered over so many beautiful worlds, 
nevertheless kept informed as to our earth. I 
thought, in my vision, that I asked my own 


THE BRIDAL TOUR 


77 


\ 

parents how the saints in the glory worlds could 
know of the wrongs, injustices, sins and sor¬ 
rows of earth and yet be so contented and 
happy. “ Full and satisfying sense of God’s 
infinite J ustice, my son,” was my father’s 
reply. Since then I have been trying to digest 
that answer, and the more I think of it the more 
easily do I see the wisdom of it. All else is 
swallowed up in a clear sense of divine 
justice! 

\ isiting one of the great planets, my mind 
turned to the thought of degrees, and as I met 
some from earth who had been untaught and 
untrained, I could not but wonder how they 
stood in this regard. As might he expected, I 
found that their wits had been wonderfully 
sharpened, and yet they were not leaders, but 
followers, there as here. While they all were 
evidently happy, yet I could see a vast differ¬ 
ence in their respective capacities to enjoy the 
marvelous opportunities they were being of¬ 
fered. 

When we reached Mars it was actually laugh¬ 
able to hear the inhabitants talk of their amuse¬ 
ment over the people of our planet trying to 
signal them. They could have understood us, 
interpreted our signals, for already they were 
cognizant of earth’s conditions; but never could 
the denizens of earth have understood the sig- 


78 NEW, .VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 

rials from Mars, tlie conditions being so radi¬ 
cally different, and we having nothing in terms 
of which to interpret. (While this is admit¬ 
tedly unscientific, it is given only as a vision, 
and not as a scientific statement.) 

Speaking of things being different, the light 
was different, the air was different, the water 
was unlike our own, the minerals different, al¬ 
though possessing many qualities similar to, or 
the same as, ours. Their building materials 
were radically different from ours, and their 
architecture wholly unlike our own. We saw, 
for instance, no houses with chimneys, for 
there was no cold! There were no electric- 
light factories, no ice factories, no repair shops, 
no second-hand stores, no drug stores, no un¬ 
dertakers, no tomb-stone makers, no signs of 
doctors or lawyers, and no beautified, silent city 
of the dead! As it began to dawn on us that 
all these, and many other common sights of 
earth, such as hospitals, “ Homes/’ etc., were 
absent, our hearts overflowed with joy, for it 
also began to steal into our hearts that soon our 
own earth would be without all these! On 
every hand conditions were so radically differ¬ 
ent from those on our little earth, that we could 
easily see how that many of the deductions of 
“ science falsely so called ” might be far from 
the truth. My own mind ran far away to the 


THE BRIDAL TOUR 79 

earth and its many preachers who have seen fit 
to put in a good deal more time studying 

science, than at Bible study, hence were pre¬ 
senting to their congregations speculations of 

men, rather than the plain statements of Je¬ 
hovah God. 

As before stated, the inhabitants of these un¬ 
fallen worlds were fully conversant with earth 
conditions; and as we were not able to see and 
know what was taking place on the earth since 
we had left, for we had not been fully glorified, 
as we had not up to this time ascended to the 
Father, we enquired of the people on one of 
the planets we were visiting concerning the 
state of affairs in the world. It was a horrible 
picture presented to us, yet all agreed that it 
was comparable to the prodigal in his hunger, 
rags and shame; and that the return home—the 
coming hack to the Father’s house, by the 
human race could only take place after mor¬ 
tals, like the prodigal himself, “ had spent all.” 
Again “ man’s extremity ” would be “ God’s 
opportunity.” Once sin had done its worst; 
once man had reached his limit, then, and not 
until then, would he be ready to acknowledge 
his helplessness, his dire need of God’s help, 
and his utter ruin without it, hence cry aloud 
for mercy. Then God could and would cut the 
work short in righteousness: “ For he will 



80 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


finish the work, and cut it short in righteous¬ 
ness, because a short work will the Lord make 
upon the earth” (Rom. 9:28). 

As the scene of horrors was presented to me 
I give it to the reader: “ The time of Jacob’s 
trouble ” had come; “ the last days ” were 
dawning; already the “ falling away” was felt 
in all parts of the world; “evil men” were 
waxing “ worse and worse;” Satan was turned 
loose on the earth, and he and his hell-hounds 
were rending the hearts of men, revelling in 
sinful riots, and bending every effort towards 
the destruction of the world-civilization. The 
“ tribulation ” was on, and all the worst ele¬ 
ments in man were showing themselves. The 
air was full of lies; thefts were committed 
hourly without the slightest compunction of 
conscience; women were no longer respected, 
but violated on every hand; little children were 
the victims of the most cruel tortures; liquor 
had returned, and men, women and children 
revelled in shameful debauches by day and by 
night; murder was most common; courts of jus¬ 
tice were utterly unknown; nothing sacred re¬ 
mained; the house of God was closed, locked 
and barred; pandemonium reigned supreme, as 
would naturally be expected with the Holy 
Spirit departed from the earth, and the Church 
of Christ absent with her Lord. 


THE BRIDAL TOUR 


81 


The nations of earth were constantly at war, 
cutting each the other to pieces; cruel strife, 
heartless treachery, devilish dealings and hell¬ 
ish hate characterized the relations of nations. 
Humanity had failed, man was now ready to 
confess his utter inability to save himself, 
hence was crying out for superhuman help! 
Then came into my mind the words of Paul in 
Hebrews 10: 34-37, “ Knowing in yourselves 
that ye have in heaven a better and an endur¬ 
ing substance. Cast not away therefor your 
confidence, which hath great recompense of re¬ 
ward. For ye have need of patience, that, 
after ye have done the will of God, ye might 
receive the promise. For yet a little while, and 
He that shall come will come, and will not 
tarry.” In that blessed promise was the only 
vestige of hope for a now godless world. “ Be¬ 
hold, I come quickly,” rang in my ears. “ It 
is Christ or Chaos,” and without Christ or His 
Church it was now chaos! 


IX 


“ IX MY FATHER’S HOUSE ” 

“ In my Father*s house are many mansions: if it 
were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a 
place for you. And if I go and prepan'e a place for 
you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself.’* 
—John 14:2. 

T HE bridal tour being now at an end, 
after these several years of journey¬ 
ing from planet to planet, in my 
vision we returned through the wide expanse of 
infinite space towards “my Father’s house.” 

Even now as I write I can recall how full 
my mind was of exciting imaginations as to 
the glories soon to be revealed. Anticipation 
is one of the joys of most mortals. The heart 
without hope is a dead heart. The things to 
come should ever lure us onward. “ Forget¬ 
ting those things which are behind, and reach¬ 
ing forth unto those things which are before ” 
(Phil. 3: 13), says Paul. And yet so many of 
God’s dear children have such unfortunate 
alertness in memory, that they make themselves 
actually miserable by living in the past! It 

is well to hold in mind the good things, but 

82 


"IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE” 83 

never the evil. Our faces must always be 
turned toward the King in Iiis glory. God is 
good; we must face Him with only good 
thoughts in our hearts. 

But here we were going literally into the 
very presence of tTehova.li God! TVhere would 
we find Him ? What attendants would sur¬ 
round Him ? What would be the awe-inspiring 
scenes about Him? What would be our first 
sensations on seeing Him ? How would He 
look? How would we act? What would He 
saj to us ? Wliat replies would we make to 
Him ? These and a thousand other questions 
were surging through our minds when a glory 
transcending all I have tried to describe hith¬ 
erto, dawned upon us; and our guides informed 
us that we were approaching that one world 
which stood out above all others of God’s crea¬ 
tion, in greatness, glory and splendour. For 
this was God’s world—the center of the entire 
universe of God, and on it was His abode, and 
His throne who filled yet all space and occu¬ 
pied all spheres with His infinite, unthinkable, 
divine presence and glory! 

The first thing we heard on approaching the 
resplendent throne of divine glory were the 
words, “ Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Al¬ 
mighty, which was, and is, and is to come” 
(Rev. 4:8). Then as we came nearer, we be- 


84 NEW. .VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


held “ the four and twenty elders/’ arrayed in 
garments of glory, prostrated before the throne 
—“ the four and twenty elders ” who “ fall 
down before him that sits on the throne, and 
worship him that liveth forever and ever, and 
cast their crowns before the throne saying, 
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and 
honour and power; for thy pleasure they are 
and were created” (Rev. 4: 10, 11). 

Then in the blazing glory of God’s wonder¬ 
ful world were scenes and sayings “ unlawful 
for man to utter” (II Cor. 12:4). Let the 
reader here pause a few moments in most 
solemn silence, and with closed eyes sweetly 
commune with that glorious God whose short 
association with Moses, the mortal man, made 
his face to shine until those who came near 
him must ask that he veil his face! (Exodus 
34:30, 33). Some earthly scenes are too 
sacred to permit discussion; how much more 
sacredly must the scenes of such heavenly 
glory be safeguarded. Suffice it to say, “ Mine 
eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts! ” 
(Isa. 6:5), even the King in all His unspeak¬ 
able glory, and each one must see Him for 
himself, some time; some with that “ joy un¬ 
speakable and full of glory ” which thrilled my 
own unworthy heart, while others, also, only 
to cry out for the rocks and mountains to fall 


“IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE” 


85 


on them, and hide them. u And they said to 
the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and 
hide us from the face of him that sitteth on 
the throne” (Rev. 6:16). 

As for ourselves, we had u come to Mount 
Zion, and to the city of the ever-living God, 
the heavenly Jerusalem, to countless hosts of 
angels, to the great festal gathering and Church 
of the first-born, whose names are recorded in 
Heaven, and to a Judge who is God of all, and 
to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, 
and to Jesus the Negotiator of a new Covenant, 
and to the sprinkled blood which speaks in more 
gracious terms than that of Abel. 

“ Therefore, receiving, as we now do, a king¬ 
dom which cannot be shaken, let us cherish 
thankfulness so that we may ever offer to God 
an acceptable service, with godly reverence and 
awe ” (Heb. 12:22-24, 28. Weymouth’s Trans¬ 
lation). 


X 


“ THIS SAME JESUS ” RETURNING 

TO REIGN 


“ For yet a little while, and he that shall come will 
come, and will not tarry ”— Hebrews 10:37. 

“ In the Spirit he carried me to the top of a vast, 
lofty mountain, and showed me the Holy City, Jeru¬ 
salemv coming down out of Heaven from God. It shone 
with a radiance like that of a very precious stone —• 
such as a jasper, bright and transparent .”— Revela¬ 
tion 21:10, 11 (Weymouth’s Translation). 


M ANY blasts of angel trumpets had 
we already heard. But now the 
archangel Gabriel, under God’s or¬ 
ders, sounded one mighty and tremendous blast 
supreme ! It pierced space in all directions, 
and sent a thrill through all our hearts. Vi¬ 
bration followed vibration, and echo chased 
echo, for some time after the great blast itself 
had ceased. Some event of unusual importance 
was, evidently, about to take place. We did 
not have to wait long to learn the significance 
of the tremendous blast. 

From all directions angelic beings began to 
gather around the Throne of God. The very 

air was full of them. Gabriel then gave two 

86 



“THIS SAME JESUS” 


87. 


more sucli trumpet blasts as we had just heard, 
and the saints from earth, scattered out among 
the spheres (as groups had dropped out of our 
bridal party to remain on one planet after an¬ 
other) began to assemble. Nothing like this 
had ever been seen before by mortal eyes in the 
days of earth’s greatest gatherings. Immedi¬ 
ately it reminded me of John’s vision: “I 
looked, and a vast host appeared which it was 
impossible for anyone to count, gathered from 
all tribes and peoples and languages, standing 
before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed 
in long white robes, and carrying palm 
branches in their hands. In loud voices they 
were exclaiming, ‘ It is to our God who is 
seated on the throne, and to the Lamb, that we 
owe our salvation.’ All the angels were stand¬ 
ing in a circle round the throne and round the 
Elders and the four living creatures, and they 
fell on their faces in front of the throne and 
worshipped God. ‘ Even so,’ they cried: ‘ The 
blessing and the glory, and the wisdom and the 
thanks and the honour and the power and the 
might are to be ascribed to our God, until the 
Ages of.the Ages! Even so’” (Rev. 7:9-12. 
Weymouth’s Translation). 

Evidently an event of most unusual impor¬ 
tance was about to transpire, and we were to 
take some part in it! As coming events cast 


88 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


their shadows before them, so we could now 
a sense 77 the approach of the unusual. 

Plans were being explained; angel officers 
were taking orders; great saints were very near 
the throne; Jesus Himself stood nearby; the 
Holy Spirit was engrossed, and a momentous 
event was at hand! 

Then followed a mighty rallying, as an army 
mobilizing. The order was perfect. Plans 
were being carried out with utmost ease and 
perfect precision. As one extreme follows an¬ 
other, quiet now reigned. Prom this immense 
angelic host and throng of saints there came not 
one word of gossip! Every word spoken was 
an order, or else an expression of readiness to 
obey orders. We of the earth had now been to 
the throne; we had seen God and lived! We 
had been face to face with the King! We had 
been glorified! So we now understood every 
command given (I Cor. 13: 12). 

The great event began to dawn on us. There 
was a tremendous opposition on earth to the 
return of Jesus accompanied by His saints, and 
the establishment of His reign in the earth. 
Satan had mobilized a mighty host of his most 
dastardly demons, and his cohorts of hell, and 
they were coming to make war on the Lamb 
and His Bride! Yet no heart feared. All was 
calmness, quietness, confidence. 


“THIS SAME JESUS” 


89 


Then there broke upon our astonished ears 
the most heart-thrilling, soul-stirring pleadings 
to which our mortal ears had ever listened. 
Could it be true? Did we not misunderstand? 
We all gave the closer heed, and looks of 
supreme surprise met as one saint faced an¬ 
other. O wonderful! How could it be ? They 
who had so long desired to have some part in 
the plan of saving the souls of sinful men 
“ which things the angels desire to look into ” 
(I Pet. 1:12), were now pleading with God 
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy 
Spirit, to let them meet the enemy alone, and 
win the battle in defense of the redeemed souls 
of men, as their part in overcoming the enemies 
of the saints! There were also the great saints 
of earth, among them the princely Saint Paul 
in the lead, insisting that since it was over our¬ 
selves the devil and his hosts would come to 
fight, the saints should bear the brunt of the 
battle, if not, indeed, fight without the aid of 
the angels. But glorious old Gabriel, sup¬ 
ported by the mighty Michael, and many an¬ 
other archangel, had his way! The saints were 
guests in glory! The hosts of Heaven would 
settle the issue with Satan and his host! 

Then came one mighty shout from the united 
voices of archangels, and without awaiting the 
arrival of the enraged devil and his army of 


90 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


demons at the throne, they dashed away to war. 
Michael was put in charge of the angelic hosts 
to set the battle in array. But let the inspired 
John tell it so much better than I can de¬ 
scribe it: 

u And war broke out in Heaven, Michael and 
his angels engaging in battle with the Dragon. 
The Dragon fought and so did his angels; bm 
they were defeated, and there was no longer 
any room found for them in Heaven. The 
great dragon, the ancient serpent, he who is 
called ‘ the Devil 7 and c the Adversary, 7 and 
leads the whole earth astray, was hurled down 
to the earth, and his angels were hurled down 
with him. Then I heard a voice speaking in 
Heaven. It said, The salvation and the power 
and the kingdom of our God have now come, 
and the sovereignty of his Christ; for the ac¬ 
cuser of our brethren has been hurled down— 
he who, day after day and night after night, 
was wont to accuse them in the presence of 
God. But they have gained the victory over 
him because of the blood of the Lamb and the 
testimony which they have borne, and because 
they held their lives cheap and did not shrink 
even from death. For this reason be glad, O 
Heaven, and you who live in Heaven! Alas 
for the earth and the sea! For the devil has 
come down to you full of fierce anger, because 


“THIS SAME JESUS” 


91 


he knows that his appointed time is short ” 
(Rev. 12:7-12. Weymouth’s Translation). 

Then it seemed to me that ten thousand 
times ten thousand trumpets, bugles, comets 
and clarinets, supported by a choir of tran¬ 
scending glory, sounded in notes of triumphant 
jubilee as the victorious army of angel con¬ 
querors came hack to the throne ! In the lan¬ 
guage of him whom God has honoured with a 
wider, deeper, clearer vision of the future than 
any other mortal has ever enjoyed: “There 
followed loud voices in Heaven which said, 
‘ The sovereignty of the world now belongs to 
our Lord and his Christ; and he will be King 
until the Ages of the Ages! ’ Then the 
twenty-four Elders, who sit on thrones in the 
presence of God, fell on their faces and wor¬ 
shipped God, saying, c We give thee thanks, O 
Lord God, the ruler of all, and who art and 
wast, because thou hast exerted thy power, thy 
great power, and hast become King. The na¬ 
tions grew angry, and thine anger has come, 
and the time for the dead to be judged, and the 
time for thee to give their reward to thy ser¬ 
vants the prophets, and to thy people and to 
those who fear thee, the small and the great, 
and to destroy those who destroy the earth! ’ 
Then the doors of God’s Sanctuary in Heaven 
were opened, and the Ark in which his Cove- 


92 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


nant was, w T as seen in his Sanctuary; and there 
came flashes of lightning, and voices and peals 
of thunder, and an earthquake and hail ” 
(Rev. 11:15-19. Weymouth’s Translation). 

Now followed a wonderfully impressive 
scene, bringing surprise to very many, joy to 
all, and very great joy to a host. The judg¬ 
ment of Stewardship was to take place. Each 
of us was to report his or her own work—■ 
labour in the Lord—while yet on the earth, and 
then be assigned proper place in the coming 
Kingdom of Christ. Each would now account 
for his or her talent, or talents (Luke 19: 12- 
2G). Since “ the Father judgeth no man, but 
hath committed all judgment to the Son ” 
(John 5:22), Jesus sat upon the throne, and 
we were glad! Glad that our Big Brother was 
to be our Judge! Glad we had loved Him; fol¬ 
lowed Him; served Him; studied His Word, 
and tried while on earth to please Him. We 
knew His judgment would be just (John 5 : 30), 
and in full accord with the facts in each case 
(Rom. 2:2). My own mind ran back to a 
verse learned in the earth days: “ For the time 
is come that judgment must begin at the house 
of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall 
the end be of them that obey not the gospel of 
God ” (I Pet. 4:17). 

Certainly there were surprises over the 


“THIS SAME JESUS” 


93 


Judgment findings and assignments of places, 
yet I saw no expression of sorrow, while regret 
marked many countenances. The goodness of 
Jesus, and His unmistakable fairness impressed 
everyone, so that each took his or her assign¬ 
ment in the coming Kingdom as of necessity, 
and without the slightest challenge. Each had 
w r on his own place—each was responsible for 
his own assignment. Some were heard to say, 
u If only we had it to go over again, we cer¬ 
tainly would work harder in the Master’s vine¬ 
yard ”—hut, alas, impossible! 

All had built upon the very same Founda¬ 
tion, Christ Jesus, as the only sound and suffi¬ 
cient basis of salvation (I Cor. 3:11). But 
there were two classes of building materials— 
the combustible, and the non-combustible, and 
these materials were now to be tested by the 
fire of judgment. One class of building mate¬ 
rial was composed of “ wood, hay, and stubble,” 
—easily combustible; the other class of “ gold, 
silver and precious stones ” that would stand 
the fire-test of the Judgment. Those whose 
works were burned, I saw assigned the lowest 
places in the Kingdom. Many of these I recog¬ 
nized as earth’s best housed, best clothed, best 
fed and blessed (?) with the biggest bank ac¬ 
counts. Their aspirations had been to shine as 



94 NEW .VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


leading “ stars ” on earth, and so they had, but 
they were assigned no shining part now! 

On the other hand I saw those who had been 
“ rich in the world’s goods ” and also in service 
to God and man, now given exalted places. 
Many of the poor, and still others of the mid¬ 
dle classes, were able to withstand the fiery 
tests, and as they received their assignments 
showed beyond doubt that it is character God 
considers, and character that decides sendee, 
and service decides one’s reward in the Judg¬ 
ment Day. It became perfectly clear to me 
now that simple faith in Jesus had brought to 
each follower of Christ, the salvation of his 
soul from hell, but only service could secure 
for one a crown in glory. In other words, I 
saw that faith brings to us salvation, while ser¬ 
vice brings to us coronation; that one cannot 
do enough work for God to buy salvation, nor 
can one put enough faith in God to win a 
crown. And I now saw that whatever Bible 
study we had done; whatever good deeds we 
had done—all would count in the great Day of 
Judgment. 

From the councils about the throne we now 
came to understand that God’s patience had 
been exhausted (Gen. 6:3; Isa. 63:10; Jer. 
11:7, 8, 11; I Thes. 5:19) by the persistent 
sins of godless men left on earth, and now 



“THIS SAME JESUS” 


95 


passing through, the Tribulation. That on the 
other hand some men on the earth were begin¬ 
ning to realize that apart from God they could 
do nothing (John 15:5) towards saving them¬ 
selves from the utter wreckage of the remain¬ 
ing civilization of earth and the ruin of the 
race. These were tiring of Satan’s tyranny. 
At last the nations were about to give up. Man 
without God had failed. As man now cried 
out in his helplessness, God would go down and 

cut the work short in righteousness ” (Ro¬ 
mans 9:28). This meant that God would take 
to earth again His only begotten Son, all the 
angels of glory, and the saints redeemed in the 
blood of the Lamb; and after binding Satan for 
a thousand years, and destroying multitudes 
with the brightness of his coming (II Thes. 
2:8; Heb. 10:27; Ideb. 10:31; Heb. 12: 29). 
inaugurate the millennial reign of His Son 
Christ Jesus. 

My own heart leaped for joy! Could it be 
really true? Was “the parenthesis of sin” 
about to end ? Would suffering humanity, so 
long handicapped, now at last soon be able to 
live in peace on the earth and develop it with¬ 
out the drawbacks of sin and Satan ? 

If my heart was swelling with glad thanks¬ 
giving over this prospect, so was there great 
joy throughout Heaven among saints and angels, 


96 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 

and all the heavenly host, and all faces 
showed it! 

Back to the earth we were to go! Saints and 
bright shining angels, God the Father and His 
holy attendants—indeed, all Heaven should 
pour out into the sin-wrecked earth for its 
rescue and renovation (Rev. 21:5). And this 
time every eye should see the Ring, Christ 
Jesus, as He came from glory not to he bom of 
a woman; not to he horn in a manger; not to 
live in poverty; not to say again, “ The foxes 
have holes, the birds of the air have their 
nests, hut the Son of Man hath not where to 
lay his head” (Matt. 8:20); not to he be¬ 
trayed and denied; not to he despised and spit 
upon; not to w T ear a crown of thorns on His 
head, and hold in His hand a reed-scepter of 
mock power; not to he nailed to the cross in 
cruel crucifixion—no, thank God, none of 
these. But He was now to come to reign in 
glory, seated upon the throne of His eaithly 
forefather David. He would rule with a rod 
of iron” some, even as John had seen and pre¬ 
dicted: “ And out of his mouth goeth a sharp 
sword, that with it he should smite the nations: 
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and 
he treadeth the wine press of the fierceness and 
wrath of Almighty God” (Rev. 19:15). He 
would put every enemy, even horrible, awful 


“THIS SAME JESUS” 


97 


death itself, under his feet! Every knee should 
how to him, and every tongue should “ confess 
him to be King of kings and Lord of lords ” 
(Rom. 14:11, 15:9). ILe who blessed every 
one whom He had touched while on the earth 
in His first ministry—giving sight to the blind, 
hearing to the deaf, health to the sick, strength 
to weak, a leap to the lame, and life, even, to 
the dead—“ this same Jesus” seen by His 
disciples to go into Heaven, should now be seen 
to “ come in like manner as ye have seen him 
go into heaven” (Acts 1:10, 11). lie was 
to come and all the saints with Him (Zech. 
14:5). Jude says, with “ten thousand of his 
saints,” by which he doubtless means that great 
number no man could enumerate (Jude 
14: 15). Jesus should come again, and with 
Him all “ his mighty angels ” (II Thes. 1:7). 
Jesus Himself had said, when on the earth, 
“ When the Son of man shall come in his 
glory, and all the holy angels with him, then 
shall he sit upon the throne of his glory ” 
(Matt. 25:31). “And then shall appear the 
sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then 
shall all the tribes of earth mourn, and they 
shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds 
of heaven, with power and great glory ” (Matt. 
24: 30). 

Long had I, on earth, tried to understand 


98 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


these passages over which the commentators 
and theologians debated, and about which they 
differed so widely, yet they baffled me. I found 
it hard to spiritualize them. Death could not 
be meant, for it could not come “ in glory.’ 
Death has always been man’s worst and last 
enemy. Nor could death come down in the 
clouds. But now these passages were perfectly 
clear to me. And the seeing was most satisfy¬ 
ing. They meant just what they said. As His 
first coming was literal, and actually in the 
flesh, so should His second coming be literal, 
and now in the glokified flesh, but actually 
in the flesh! And we, too, should descend with 
Him, and be with Him, in the unfolding glo¬ 
ries of the “ times of refreshing ” which “ shall 
come from the presence of the Lord; and he 
shall send Jesus Christ, who before was 
preached unto you: whom the heavens must 
receive until the times of restitution of all 
things, which God hath spoken by the mouth 
of all his holy prophets since the world began.” 
“ Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel, and 
those that follow after, as many as have spoken, 
have likewise foretold of these days ” (Acts 
3: 19-21, 24). 

As it now impresses me, the flight from glory 
to the earth in chariots of clouds, was just one 
mighty triumphant anthem of joy and rejoicing. 


f 


“THIS SAME JESUS” 


99 


"And when the feet of the Blessed Christ lightly 
touched again the crest of Mount Olivet, the 
whole world stood aghast with bated breath, for 
the glorious phenomenon was witnessed around 
the entire earth, since we, for several days, 
were in the air hovering over the Holy City 
before descending; and by night the glory glow 
of His presence lighted the city and surround¬ 
ing country for many miles. Naturally enough 
Associated Press dispatches told the whole 
world of the strange scenes transpiring; and 
just as naturally air ships, now traversing 
space between New York and London within 
twelve hours’ time, brought people from all 
parts of the world with flights which broke all 
previous records! Of these, thousands were 
hungry to see Him as the only hope for the 
earth, as the welcome Deliverer. Other thou¬ 
sands were simply sightseers, coming solely to 
satisfy idle curiosity. Then there was that 
ubiquitous class, ever on the alert for the new, 
the strange, the unusual news, namely, the 
Press reporters, who were there to “ feature ” 
the phenomenon in thrilling “ stories ” for their 
respective great metropolitan dailies. 

During the time we were in the air with our 
Lord, the whole earth took its turn by night in 
seeing the “ sights,” so that literally “ every 
eye ” saw Him, as the distinct outline of His 



> > » 


100 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


glorious figure could again be seen forming the 
center of the glow. u Behold, he cometh with 
clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they 
also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the 
earth shall wail because of him ” (Rev. 1:7). 
Long, long ago John had been shown in a 
vision that which was now actually happening. 
“ And they also which pierced him 77 referred 
undoubtedly to the Jews who crucified Christ. 
So, now this peculiar people, seemingly “ the 
apple” of God’s eye, kept together nationally, 
in a sense, through all the many vicissitudes of 
many centuries, were beholding Him from all 
parts of the world, and were wailing “ because 
of him.” They wailed because they now knew 
it was their long-looked-for Messiah! whom 
they had crucified, and their sins against Him 
now loomed up before them larger, and still 
larger till their bitter lamentations were heart¬ 
rending. 

They were the more fully convinced of His 
identity, since when the feet of Jesus touched 
the Mount of Olives it cleft asunder, parting 
North and South, and thus forming a valley 
running East and West—just as their own 
Zechariah had said should be the case (Zech. 
14:4). This remarkable phenomenon had 
been radiographed at once over the entire earth. 
And literally hundreds of kodaks and cameras 


“THIS SAME JESUS” 


101 


had been turned on this new valley, the pic¬ 
tures from which exposures were quickly sent 
by the latest process of wireless photographic 
reproduction to the metropolitan dailies 
throughout the world. 

But as if this proof were insufficient, the 
world was also now being informed that all of 
a sudden an immense stream of water had 
begun to gush out from under the site of the 
Temple when Jesus set foot on the Mount of 
Olives, and pictures of this stream, dividing in 
two parts, one flowing towards the Dead Sea, 
the other towards the Mediterranean, were 
being reproduced in the world’s greatest dailies! 
The Jews took out their long neglected Bibles 
and refreshed their memories as to such a 
strange change in the topography of Palestine, 
and sure enough there it was: “ And it shall 
be in that day, that living waters shall go out 
from Jerusalem; half of them towards the 
former sea, and half of them towards the hinder 
sea: in summer and winter shall it be” (Zech. 
14: 8). Enough! This could be none other 

THANT THAT VERY MESSIAH WHOM THE LORD 
HAD LONG AGO PLEDGED TO TIlS CHOSEN PEOPLE. 

Now men of the Wells class, speaking lightly 
of the Jewish history, and discounting Biblical 
accounts of divine favouritism for Israel, would 
be scoffed instead of their scoffing! 


102 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


But the devil had been oast out of Heaven— 
whipped! Worn into a frazzle! Naturally he 
was angered to the very limit of endurance. 
He knew, too, that his time was short. So the 
appearance of Jesus Christ and His saints on 
the earth was the signal for the Satanic hosts, 
demons and devilish men, to assemble in one 
mighty final conflict. As God showed this to 
John, and that in a vision beyond all compare 
with any others, let him tell it: “I saw three 
foul spirits, resembling frogs, issue from the 
mouth of the Dragon, from the mouth of the 
Wild Beast, and from the mouth of the false 
prophet. For they are the spirits of demons 
working marvels—'Spirits that go out to con¬ 
trol the kings of the whole earth, to assemble 
them for the battle which is to take place on 
the great day of God, the Ruler of all. (I am 
coming like a thief. Blessed is the man who 
keeps awake and guards his raiment for fear 
he walk about ill-clad, and his uncomeliness be¬ 
come manifest.) And assemble them they did 
at the place called in Hebrew ‘ Har-Magedon.’ 
Then the seventh angel poured his bowl into 
the air, and a loud voice came out of the Sanc¬ 
tuary from the throne, saying, ‘ Everything is 
now ready.’ Flashes of lightning followed, and 
voices, and peals of thunder and an earthquake 



“THIS SAME JESUS” 


103 


more dreadful than there had ever been since 
there was a man upon the earth—so terrible was 
it, and so great. * * * Every island fled 

away, and there was not a mountain anywhere 
to be seen. And heavy hail, that seemed to be 
a talent in weight, fell from the sky upon the 
people; and they spoke evil of God on account 
of the plague of the hail—because the plague of 
it was exceedingly severe” (Rev. 16:13-21. 
Weymouth’s Translation). 

But, thank God, John saw much more which 
we were now witnessing. If the mere promise 
of God that Satan should be bound, thrilled 
John’s soul, how much greater was our thrill, 
now that we beheld the fulfillment of those 
pledges of Jehovah God to men? John wrote: 
“And I saw an angel come down from Heaven, 
having the key to the bottomless pit, and upon 
his arm he carried a great chain. He laid hold 
of the dragon—the ancient serpent—who is 
the devil and the adversary, and bound him for 
a thousand years, and hurled him into the bot¬ 
tomless pit. He closed the entrance and put a 
seal upon him, in order that he might be un¬ 
able to lead the nations astray any more until 
the thousand years were at an end. Afterwards 
he is to be set at liberty a short time. And I 
saw thrones, and those who were seated on 



104 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


them, to whom judgment was entrusted ” (Rev. 
20:1-4. Weymouth’s Translation). 

As the assembly of angels and saints in 
Heaven, just now recited, was a record-breaker, 
so was the next congregation. The Lord Jesus 
Christ was to be crowned King of kings and 
Lord of lords, and the Jews were to accept Him 
as their long looked-for Messiah, King and Re¬ 
deemer ! They were now in Jerusalem from 
all parts of the world. All the country round 
about the city for many miles was one solid 
camp wherever camping was permitted. The 
air was equally full of angels and saints. The 
glory glow was seen by night, and a wonderful 
cloud by day. The ceremonies were to be short 
and simple. Only one-half an hour would God 
and His mighty hosts of Heaven be away from 
the throne (Rev. 8:1). (The “ half of an 
hour” expressing a short time, rather than 
thirty minutes, of course.) 

The earth was now treated to such music by 
the heavenly hosts as its people never before 
dreamed possible! The angels sang, and all 
the world heard it, for the Jews had installed 
the most wonderful radio station of all the 
earth in Jerusalem, the contribution of rich 
and Palestine-loving Jews of all lands. 

Then there came a voice like the tremendous 
thunders of many waters breaking loose: 


‘‘THIS SAME JESUS” 


105 


“ This is My beloved Son: receive ye Him, 
this time as your King ? ” It was a ques¬ 
tion. The saints returned from glory, not only, 
but also all those who had passed through the 
tribulation, united their voices in reply, the 
Jews joining in, proclaiming in the most per¬ 
fect unison: “ Even so; come Lord Jesus, for 
Thou art Lord of lords, and King of kings, now 
unto our subdued and conquered souls.” 

One more mighty, grand, resplendent angel 
anthem rang out, rending air, earth and sky. 
Then the great apostle Paul was called upon to 
pronounce the benediction in which he said: 
“ Jesus, thou art the blessed and only Poten¬ 
tate, the King of kings and Lord of lords; who 
only hath immortality, dwelling in the light 
which no man can approach unto; whom no 
man hath seen, nor can see; to whom be honour 
and power everlasting. Amen ” (I Tim. 6:15, 
16). “ To God only wise, be glory, through 

Jesus Christ, for ever. Amen ” (Kom. 16:27). 
“ My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. 
Amen” (I Cor. 16:24). “ The grace of the 

Lord J esus Christ, and the love of God, and the 
communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. 
Amen” (II Cor. 13:14). “ Brethren, the 

grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your 
spirit. Amen ” (Gal. 6:18). “ Grace be with 
all them that love our Lord J esus Christ in sin- 


106 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 

cerity. Amen ” (Eph. 6:24). And “ now tlie 
God of peace, that brought again from the dead 
our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the 
sheep, through the blood of the everlasting cove¬ 
nant, make you perfect in every good work to 
do his will, working in you that which is well¬ 
pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ: to 
whom he glory for ever and ever. Amen, and 
Amen ” (Heb. 13:20, 21). 

The clouds lifted, the heavenly company 
went upward with it, on and up, till no mortal 
eye could see it longer, and the Prince of Peace 
alone remained of the heavnly host to lead men 
on into glorious victory ! 


XI 

A THOUSAND YEARS OF PEACE 

t' 

When the Lord shall build up Zion , he shall ap¬ 
pear m his glory” — Psalms 102:16. 

They lived and reigned icith Christ a thousand 
years.’ — Revelation 20:4. 

“ They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and 
shall reign with him a thousand years ” —Revelation 
20 : 6 . 

A T last! u Glory to God in the high¬ 
est, and on earth peace, good will 
toward men! ” For He who had 
said, “ I will give peace in the land, and ye 
shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: 
and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, 
neither shall the sword go through your land ” 
(Lev. 26:6), had at last sent again into the 
world “ His only begotten Son,”—' The 
Prince of Peace ” (Isa. 9:6). Long had the 
world said, “ Peace, peace, when there is no 
peace” (Jer. 6:14), trying to heal the wound 
of sin thus lightly, yet in vain. Truly, “ the 
way of peace they have not known ” (Rom. 
3:17). For as God had said, “ They have 
seduced my people, saying, ‘ Peace/ and there 
was no peace ” (Ezek. 13 : 10). The world had 
been exceedingly slow to leam that “ in me ye 
might have peace” (John 16:33), and in 

Him alone. Truly the great business man of 

107 


108 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


America was right: “It is Christ, or it is 
chaos.” And chaos seems to reign all over the 
world in its incipient form, yet we are strug¬ 
gling to force peace. “ Peace from God our 
Father,” is Saint Paul’s benediction (Rom. 
1:7). Again he tells us the kingdom of God 
is peace (Rom. 14: 17). Jesus Christ is the 
“ King of Peace” (Ileb. 7:2). “He is our 
peace” (Eph. 2:14). And now He has 
come! He has battled with the source of all 
our confusion—Satan—conquered him, and 
consigned him to “ the bottomless pit ” (Rev. 
20:8) as his temporary abode—for one thou¬ 
sand years—thank the Lord! 

In the beginning of that thousand years little 
babies shall be horn to enter a long life of 
peace, joy and happiness unalloyed. Methu¬ 
selah lived to he 969, according to the record, 
hut doubtless men shall live from the beginning 
to the end of the millennium! For “the 
righteous shall flourish like the palm tree” 
(Psa. 92:12). And Isaiah pictured this 
period of peace and prosperity most vividly, as 
follows: “ Behold, I create new heavens, and 
a new earth: and the former shall not be re¬ 
membered, nor come into mind. But he ye 
glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: 
for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and 
her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jeru- 



A THOUSAND YEARS OF PEACE 109 

salem, and joy in my people: and the voice of 
weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the 
voice of crying. There shall be no more thence 
an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not 
filled his days: for the child shall die an hun- 
dred years old; but the sinner, being an hun¬ 
dred years old shall be accursed. And they 
shall build houses, and inhabit them, and they 
shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. 
They shall not build, and another inhabit; they 
shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days 
of a tree are the days of my people, and mine 
elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 
They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth 
for trouble: for they are the seed of the blessed 
of the Lord, and their offspring with them. 
And it shall come to pass, that before they call, 
I will answer: and while they are yet speaking, 
I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed 
together, and the lion shall eat straw like the 
bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. 
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy 
mountain, saith the Lord” (Isa. 65: 17-25). 

The word of God is always consistent. It 
never clashes with itself. Its order is not al¬ 
ways clearly chronological. It is rather a patch 
of flowers, growing in the yard promiscuously 
■—you must gather the flowers and arrange 
them according to colours. So, the great truths 


110 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 

taught by Isaiah are in line with those of 
John’s vision, banished on the Isle of Patinos. 
Let John tell what he saw, and then shall fol¬ 
low the details of that which God gave the 
author the privilege of seeing. 

John says, “And I saw thrones, and some 
who were seated on them, to w T hom judgment 
was entrusted. And I saw the souls of those 
who had been beheaded on account of the testi¬ 
mony that they had borne to Jesus and on ac¬ 
count of God’s Message, and also the souls of 
those who had not worshipped the Wild Beast 
or his statue, nor received his mark on their 
foreheads or on their hands; and they came to 
life and were kings with Christ for a thousand 
years. No one else who was dead rose to life 
until the thousand years were at an end. This 
is the First Resurrection. Blessed and holy are 
those who share in the First Resurrection. 
The Second Death has no power over them, but 
they shall be priests to God and to Christ for 
the thousand years. 

“ But when the thousand years are at an end, 
the Adversary will be released from his im¬ 
prisonment, and will go out to lead astray the 
nations in all the four corners of the earth, Gog 
and Magog, and assemble them for war, and 
they are like the sands on the seashore in num¬ 
ber. And they went up over the whole breadth 


A THOUSAND YEARS OF PEACE 111 

of the earth, and surrounded the encampment 
of God’s people and the beloved city. But fire 
came down from Heaven and consumed them; 
and the devil, who had been leading them 
astray, was thrown into the lake of fire and 
sulphur where the Wild Beast and the False 
Prophet were, and day and night they will suf¬ 
fer torture until the Ages of the Ages. 

“ Then I saw a great white throne and One 
who was seated on it, from whose presence 
earth and sky fled away, and no place was 
found for them. And I saw the dead, the 
great and the small, standing in front of the 
throne. And books were opened; and so was 
another book—namely, the Book of Life; and 
the dead were judged by the things recorded 
in the books in accordance with what their con¬ 
duct had been. Then the sea yielded up the 
dead who were in it, Death and Hades yielded 
up the dead who were in them, and each man 
was judged in accordance with what his con¬ 
duct had been. Then Death and Hades were 
thrown into the lake of fire; this is the Sec¬ 
ond Death—the lake of fire. And if any one’s 
name was not found recorded in the Book of 
Life he was thrown into the lake of fire” 
(Rev. 20:4-15. Weymouth’s Translation). 

But before taking up the things future, let 
us look backward for a moment: 


112 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 

u The parenthesis of sin " is now past! The 
creature made in the image of his Creator, yet 
side-tracked by Satan from the divine plan for 
him, is now once more on the track. Once 
more he is in harmony with his God. Onco 
more he will dwell in Eden, as both Isaiah and 
John saw and stated, for all lost in Genesis is 
restored to man in Revelation. 

This second attempt to live a godly life will 
be free from temptation. There will be no in¬ 
ducement to do wrong. In the human heart 
love to God will reign. “ Thy will be done on 
earth as it is done in Heaven/' will be prayed 
no more, for it has been answered! God s will, 
the one will of all the earth, is now supreme! 
Flesh, bones, blood—“ the natural man/' with 
a stubborn will ceases to rule. No longer can 
man say with Paul, “ For that which I do, I 
allow not: for what I would, that I do not; but 
what I hate, that I do. For the good that I 
would, I do not; but the evil which I would 
not, that I do. * * * When I would do 

good, evil is present with me. For I delight 
in the law of God after the inward man: but 
I see another law in my members, warring 
against the law of my mind, and bringing me 
into captivity to the law of sin which is in my 
members. O wretched man that I am! who 
shall deliver me from the body of this death? 


A THOUSAND YEARS OF PEACE 113 

I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law 
of God; but with the flesh the law of sin ” 
(Rom. 7:15, 19, 21-25). 

So, at last the spiritual man is victorious! 
Paul saw clearly humanity groaning in the 
bondage of the flesh-life, then the wonderful 
victory following in the spiritual life of this 
period we are considering. He says: “ For all 
creation, gazing eagerly as if with outstretched 
neck, is waiting and longing to see the mani¬ 
festation of the sons of God. For the creation 
fell into subjection to failure and unreality 
(not of its own choice, but by the will of Him 
who so subjected it). Yet there was always the 
hope that at last the creation itself would also 
be set fiee from the thraldom of decay so as to 
ei W liberty that will attend the glory of 
the children of God. For we know that the 
whole of creation is groaning together in the 
pains of childbirth until this hour. And more 
than that, we ourselves, though we possess the 
Spirit as a foretaste and pledge of the glorious 
future, yet we ourselves inwardly sigh, as we 
wait and long for open recognition as sons 
through the deliverance of our bodies ” (Rom. 
8:20-23. Weymouth’s Translation). 

At last a part of the human race has over¬ 
come self and Satan through Jesus Christ our 


114 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


Lord, and these are entering upon that blessed 
heritage pledged by the Master when He showed 
John some of the glories mortals should enjoy 
during the thousand years of peace. “ To him 
that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on 
my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set 
down with my Father in his throne ” (Rev. 
3:21). 

This passage, along with others, certainly 
does teach that there are two thrones, the 
Father’s and the Son’s. If two thrones, there 
must be two kingdoms. But are there ? If so 
the Word must set them forth somewhere within 
its lids. As a matter of fact Bible students 
have long wondered over two expressions used 
frequently in the Book of books. These are 
kingdom passages. They are “ the kingdom of 
God,” and “ the kingdom of heaven,” or “ the 
kingdom of the heavens.” Great scholars are 
arrayed on both sides. Two of the best Bible 
interpreters of our day who were asked what 
was the difference in meaning of the two ex¬ 
pressions, agreed that “ the kingdom of God ” 
is a spiritual kingdom, within the Christian’s 
heart, or inner life—spiritual life, salvation. 
Jesus Himself said, “ The kingdom of God 
cometh not with observation: neither shall they 
say “ Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the 
kingdom of God is within you ” (Luke 17: 20, 


A THOUSAND YEARS OF PEACE 115 


21). Paul said, “ The kingdom of God is not 
meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, 
and joy in the Holy Spirit ” (Rom. 14:17). 
These, and other passages seem to settle it that 
u the kingdom of God ” is a spiritual kingdom, 
within our hearts. 

On the other hand “ the kingdom of the 
heavens ” seems to be a kingdom of the air, or 
of the elements, or of material things. His 
kingdom was not worldly, carnal, fleshly—“ not 
of this world ” (John IS: 36), but like a ship, 
as some one has said—while not of the water 
yet in it; so His kingdom, while not of the 
world, yet is in it. The mother of James and 
John certainly understood (and surely only 
from His own teaching) that He would be 
given His own kingdom in due time, hence 
asked that her hoys might he granted the 
honour of sitting, the one on His right hand, 
the other on His left; and Jesus did not cor¬ 
rect her impression of His having a kingdom, 
whereas had she been in error He certainly 
would have corrected her (Matthew 20:23). 
Paul fully believed in a kingdom in some sense 
specially belonging to the Son, for he speaks of 
“the kingdom of his dear Son ” (Col. 1: 13). 
Peter also held to the same belief, for he refers 
to the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ ” (II Peter 1: 11). John 


116 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 

reports Jesus as admitting himself to be a 
king: “Yes; * * * you say truly that I 

am a king. For this purpose was I horn, and 
for this purpose I am come into the world to 
give testimony to the truth” (John 18 :37; 
Weymouth’s Translation). Even Zechariah 
had prophesied long before Jesus came, that 
“the Lord shall be King over all the earth” 
(Zech. 14:9). In his wonderful and glorious 
vision of the reign of Christ, John heard great 
voices in heaven saying, “ The sovereignty of 
the world now belongs to our Lord and his 
Christ; and he will be King until the Ages of 
the Ages ” (Rev. 11:15; Weymouth’s Transla¬ 
tion). Away back in the dim past God had 
graciously entrusted to His faithful servant 
Daniel a full vision of these things of the King¬ 
dom of Jesus: “I saw in the night visions, 
and, behold, one like the Son of man came with 
the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient 
of days, and they brought him near before 
him. And there was given him dominion, and 
glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, 
and languages, should serve him; his dominion 
is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass 
away, and his kingdom that which shall not be 
destroyed. * * * I beheld, and the same 

horn made war with the saints, and prevailed 
against them; until the Ancient of days came, 


A THOUSAND YEARS OF PEACE 117 


and judgment was given to the saints of the 
Most High; and the time came that the saints 
possessed the kingdom. * * * And the king¬ 
dom and dominion, and the greatness of the 
kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be 
given to the people of the saints of the Most 
High whose kingdom is an everlasting king¬ 
dom, and all dominions shall serve and obey 
him” (Dan. 7:13, 14, 21, 22, 27.) 

Concerning this kingdom of heaven Jesus 
assured His disciples two things: first, that His 
followers should have an interest in, and take 
part in, the management of His kingdom; and 
second, that it, unlike the kingdom of God, 
which is not meat and drink, should be a king¬ 
dom in which there should be eating and drink¬ 
ing. Here are His own words: “I covenant 
to give you, as my father has covenanted to give 
me, a kingdom—so that you shall eat and drink 
at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones 
as judges over the twelve tribes of Israel ” 
(Luke 22: 29, 30; Weymouth’s Translation). 

Even after Jesus had gone back to glory, and 
was showing John things which should take 
place, he let him hear the a living creatures ” 
and the twenty-four Elders around the throne 
singing a new song, and it was about Jesus and 
His followers reigning: “ It is fitting that thou 
shouldst be the one to take the book and break 


118 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


the seal; because thou hast been offered in 
sacrifice, and hast purchased for God with 
thine own blood some out of every tribe and 
language and people and nation, and hast 
formed them into a kingdom to be priests to 
our God; and they reign over the earth ” (Rev. 
5:9; Weymouth’s Translation). 

Then as I wept and prayed in great agony 
over these startling statements of prophecy, and' 
cried out to God for light and understanding, 
that which He granted me to see was the 
glorious triumph of Christ and Christianity 
for a thousand years to come, and at the close 
of that period the delivery of the kingdom by 
the Son to the Father (I Cor. 15:24-28). 
And the very distinct impression made upon 
my mind was that the thousand years would be 
a sample of what would have happened on 
earth from Eden forward had man refused to 
eat of the forbidden fruit, and thereafter been 
allowed to partake of the “ tree of life ” (Gen. 
8:22, 23); and had proceeded with his own 
development, and that of the earth’s civiliza¬ 
tion, without the horrible handicap of sin. 

Among the items of glorious life-unfolding 
and marvelous world progress, I recall and 
record the following: 

A climate salubrious and thoroughly com¬ 
fortable, without the inconvenience and expense 


A THOUSAND YEARS OF PEACE 119 


of racing across, or up and down, the land, 
looking for it. With extremes of heat and 
cold went the corrosive havoc wrought by the 
weather. Thus “ colds/’ pneumonia, catarrh, 
and all kindred diseases vanished. All noxious 
growths, constituting a part of the curse for 
sin (Gen. 3:18), disappeared. Gradually old 
gullies and grinning gulches filled with debris 
and growing vines, shrubs and beautiful flow¬ 
ers. New varieties of grains, fruits and vege¬ 
tables were growing in increasing abundance. 
So luxuriously grew the things that man 
needed, minus now crab-grass, weeds, thistles, 
thorns and briars, that light and little effort 
was necessary to have plenty of the very best 
foods for man and beast. Man ceased to care 
for meats, hence no longer took the lives of the 
animals, birds, fishes, etc. Thus all life below 
man lost its fear of him, so that I could see 
little children now playing with erstwhile 
vicious and poisonous creatures, once feared, 
dreaded and destroyed. 

As sickness gave way before the physicians 
and scientists, and scientific food was generally 
used, while insects, pests, germs, microbes, 
malaria, etc., were destroyed, doctors became 
less and less necessary, druggists went out of 
business, and hospitals, undertakers and grave¬ 
diggers found themselves less and less popular 


120 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN, 


day by day, until finally they disappeared alto¬ 
gether towards the end of the thousand years. 
So the whole drift of human life was towards 
that perfection which had been the dream of 
man for centuries, now to be fully reached in 
the “ Ages upon Ages ” period to follow im¬ 
mediately upon the thousand years of peace. 

Being a great lover of the Book of Isaiah, 
my mind very naturally reverted to the glorious 
vision God had given the old Prophet whose 
lips were touched with a live coal of fire, and 
who wrote with a pen of fiery fervour: “ Re¬ 
joice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, 
all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, 
all ye that mourn for her. * * * For thus 
saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to 
her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles 
like a flowing stream. * * * As one whom 

his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; 
and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. * * * 
And when ye see this, your heart shall rejoice. 
* * * For, behold, the Lord will come with 
fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to 
render his anger with fury and his rebuke with 
flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword 
will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain 
of the Lord shall be many. * * * It shall 
come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; 
and they shall come and see my glory. * * * 


A THOUSAND YEARS OF PEACE 121 


And they shall declare my glory among the 
Gentiles ” (Isa. G6:10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 

18, 19). 

There had always been, since I could remem¬ 
ber, a tendency to spiritualize most of the 
prophetic promises of blessings to God’s peo¬ 
ple. But that system of interpretation never 
did satisfy. Somehow a physical man yearned 
for a physical home, on a physical earth, with 
physical blessings, minus all curses. All glory 
to God! now, I was seeing it realized. God 
was bringing it about. It was His plan to do 
away completely with all the ravages and ruin 
of sin; He who pledged Himself to make a 
sevenfold disposal of sin unto its complete 
obliteration, even to the point of His forgetting 
our sins! would bring it all about. His seven¬ 
fold promises: 1. To forgive our sins: “ Then 
will I forgive their sin ” (II Chron. 7:14); 
2. To blot them out: “ I have blotted out, as a 
thick cloud, * * * thy sins ” (Isa. 

44: 22); 3. Cover them up: “ Thou hast for¬ 
given the iniquity of thy people; thou hast cov¬ 
ered their sins” (Psa. 85:2); 4. Casts them 
behind His back: “ Thou hast cast all my sins 
behind thy back” (Isa. 38:17); 5. As far as 
the East is from the West: “ As far as the 
East is from the West, so far hath he removed 
our transgressions from us” (Psa. 103:12); 


122 NEW, VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


6. Casts them to the bottom of the sea: “ Thou 
wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the 
sea ” (Micah 7: 19) ; 7. Remember them no 
more forever: “ Their sins and iniquities will 
I remember no more ” (Heb. 10: 17). 

Sin was to be entirely out of God’s great, 
divine mind—He would forget it! Therefore, 
no longer should sin warp man’s conduct; no 
longer should sin be in man’s heart; no longer 
would sin be in man’s words; no longer should 
sin throttle man’s steps; no longer should sin 
cloud man’s way; no longer should sin weaken 
man with disease; no longer would sin bring 
man shame and failure; and no longer should 
sin hinder mans progress. “ The parenthesis 
of sin ” now passed utterly and eternally! 

With sin a thing of the past, and Satan 
bound for a thousand years, there would be no 
diseases and few deaths; no hate; no bitter¬ 
ness; no unforgiving spirit; no rankled mind 
as injustice is recalled; no ugly rivalry; no 
thefts; no lying; no defrauding; no greed; no 
graft; no false stimulants; no coifee, tea, liquor 
nor tobacco (what on earth will some people 
do in such a world!) ; no lust; no “ white slave 
traffic;” no morphine victims; no “ dope ” 
fiends; no ill-formed children; no pain in child¬ 
bearing; no uncontrolled children; no unduly 
indulgent parents; no straying sons or delin- 


A THOUSAND YEARS OF PEACE 123 


quent daughters; no courts—save for records; 
no jails; no penitentiaries; no “ hell on earth ” 
in any home, nor any “ hell’s half acre.” 

But Churches? Yes; schools? yes; society? 
yes; worship? yes; books? yes; papers and 
other periodicals ? yes; carpenters and contract¬ 
ors? yes; sky-scrapers? yes; parks? yes; high¬ 
ways ? eveeywheee ! farmers ? yes; merchants ? 
yes; factories? yes; capital and labour? yes, 
but partners, profit-sharing now; pastimes? 
yes, but altogether innocent and helpful; 
music ? yes, the best, without a discord; eat¬ 
ing? yes, hut scientific foods, and sensible con¬ 
sumption thereof; drinking ? yes, hut only 
healthful, harmless sorts; pleasures? yes, in¬ 
deed—more than ever, and full of joy, gladness 
and heavenly ecstasy! 

All life is to he active; everyone will he well, 
without “ hook-worms,” pelagia, laziness or 
even biliousness—to make sluggish, so that all 
will be full of energy, “ pep,” power and effi¬ 
ciency. All hands will he busy, taking part in 
the new and wonderful development of the 
earth under this strange and startling regime. 
The introduction of the most adaptable ele¬ 
ments of the wonderful civilizations of the un¬ 
fallen spheres, will he led by the brilliant saints 
of long ago—perhaps centuries ago—who have 


124 NEW .VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


so long been studying those bright, shining, sin¬ 
less worlds, visible any cloudless night. 

A thousand new discoveries, a host of new 
inventions, and many great national and inter¬ 
national conclaves, will constitute some of the 
interesting features of the marvelous develop¬ 
ments in those glorious days to dawn. And 
many things will go, such as our railroads—far 
too slow and too clumsy for such an age of ad¬ 
vancement. Electricity, and other equally 
strange extractions from nature’s cloisters, will 
take the place of steam. The airplane will be 
perfected, and in general use. But that will 
become clumsy, too! Saints who have trav¬ 
ersed the air without intermediatory agencies 
will conquer the air, overcome gravity, and in 
their eventually fully glorified bodies, bid defi¬ 
ance to space! The sixth sense will be so de¬ 
veloped that in a most important sense we shall 
“ know as we are known,” though not in the 
fullest, highest sense, yet awhile. New powers, 
new agents, new elements, new combinations, 
new laws, will be discovered, and the whole 
world will be “ on a boom ”! The dear old 
earth has just begun to grow out of its baby¬ 
hood ! 

As there will be demand for more land to 
accommodate the returned dear ones from glory, 
and also for those being born (while there will 


A THOUSAND YEARS OF PEACE 125 


be only an occasional death), God’s promise of 
the most remarkable and seemingly impossible 
topographical changes, will then take place. 
The mountains will crumble at God’s command 
(Job 9: 5, Isa. 54:10), while the sea will obey 
Him in its mighty upheaval, furnishing the 
most fertile soil imaginable (Rev. 21: 1, Isa. 
50:2). With a uniform climate, and such 
alluvial soil resulting from the corrosion of 
ages, and the deposits of sea life at death for 
centuries, no wonder the trees shall bear 
monthly, or their immense and spungy leaves 
be “ for the healing of the nations ”—cdfesum- 
ing as they will the poisonous gases that may 
be left in the air. 

The Jews have gathered back in Jerusalem, 
their rightful home, preserved for them during 
the vicissitudes of centuries. The Palestine 
Republic has been formed. The old city has 
been repaired, walls and all, and around the 
old, the new, the modern in all lespects, will be 
built. The “ holy city ” will become in a sense 
the capital of the world, and the mecca of all 
nations and peoples. The Jew will take his 
original place as a leader among men. The 
wild olive branch (Gentiles) will be cut off, and 
the natural branches (the Jews) will be grafted 
into their own root-system (Rom. 11:17-36; 
Luke 21: 24). The whole world will recognize 


’126 NEW .VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


the Jews as a remarkable people, chosen of 
God, and kept of God, and now to he wonder¬ 
fully used of God. The race hissed, mocked, 
derided, persecuted, spit upon and despised, 
will then come to its own place of leadership 
and honour and power. 

The Jew has never really lost his leadership 
entirely. He has always occupied a command¬ 
ing place, though scattered here and yonder 
among the Gentiles; though hated, though per¬ 
secuted, though maltreated, yet always manag¬ 
ing in one way or another to command atten¬ 
tion! In some way he has always made him¬ 
self felt as an important factor even among 
his captors—as Daniel in Babylon; as among 
ruling Romans a money-lender; as shifty mul¬ 
tipliers among jealous Russians; as Disraeli 
the Prime Minister among his friendly rivals 
in England; as the Rothschild money monopo¬ 
lizers of nations; as the Kuhn-Loeb and Com¬ 
pany syndicate financiers of America, and the 
many colossal clothing manufacturers of our 
country. The ubiquitous Jew !—like a cat— 
lighting on his feet whenever there is half a 
chance ! Yes, tricky, so much so the Gentile 
finds it hard to keep up with him! 

Always, in all places and in all times the 
Jew must be reckoned with. God’s mark has 
been, and still is, upon him. And the God who 


A THOUSAND YEARS OF PEACE 127 

scattered him pledged His word for the return 
of this strange, “ peculiar people ” to the land 
of Palestine; the land God gave them to be 
their very own (Jer. 32:37-42; Jer. 31:10), 
as follows: u Dehold, I will gather them out 
of all countries whither I have driven them in 
mine anger, and in my fury, and in great 
wrath; and I will bring them again unto this 
place, and X will cause them to dwell safely: 
and they shall be my people, and I will be their 
God; and I will give them one heart, and one 
way, that they may fear me for ever, for the 
good of them and of their children after them: 
and I will make an everlasting covenant with 
them, that I will not turn away from them to 
do them good; but I will put my fear in their 
hearts, that they shall not depart from me. 
X ea, X will rejoice over them to do them good, 
and I will plant them in this land assuredly 
with my whole heart, and with my whole soul. 
X oi thus saith the Xjord, Dike as I have brought 
all this great evil upon this people, so will I 
bring upon them all the good that I have 
promised them.” “ Hear ye the word of the 
Lord, 0 ye nations, and declare it in the isles 
afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will 
gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth 
his flock.” 

It is rather humiliating to contemplate the 


128 NEW. .VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


reversal of the relationship between Gentile and 
Jew in that day, for the present leader will 
then be led! This vision God gave to Zechariah 
away back in the dim past: “ Thus saith the 
Lord of hosts, In those days it shall come to 
pass that ten men shall take hold, out of all lan¬ 
guages of the nations, even shall take hold of 
the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will 
go with you; for we have heard that God isi 
with you ” (Zech. 8:23). 

But, if Jesus Christ, the greatest of all the 
Jew T s who ever lived, shall yet be accepted by 
the Jews, and He shall take them in hand, 
honour and bless and use them, they will un¬ 
dergo the first hard trial of reversing their 
faith and practice, and even have to surrender 
their homes among the nations of the earth, and 
re-settle in the land of Palestine. When these 
changes shall have been “ swallowed as a bitter 
pill ” by the Jew, and that pill has become 
“ sweet as honey ” in his stomach, then it will 
be easier for the Gentile to “ take his medi¬ 
cine ! ” 

In that hour the Spirit of God shall rule in 
all hearts—Jew and Gentile—and Love shall 
be eartlTs law, so that there shall be no room 
for envy, jealousy, competition, rivalry, for all 
such old things will have passed away, and God 
will be “ making all things new.” 


XII 


“ THE XEW HEAVEXS AXD THE XEW 

EARTH ” 

“ That the things which cannot be shaken may re¬ 
main ”— Hebrews 12:27. 

“Sing and rejoice, 0 daughter of Zion: for, lo, I 
come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the 
Lord ”— Zechariah 2:10. 

“ Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for 
neio heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
righteousness ”—II Peter 3:13. 

“ The former things are passed away. And he that 
sat upon the throne said, Behold, 1 make all things 
now. And he said unto me, Write; for these words 
are true and faithful .”— Revelation 21:4, 5. 

T HE thousand years of “ peace on 
earth ” have now ended. During it 
Jesus and His saints have reigned. 
He has assigned many posts of honour and first 
importance. Some of the grand old martyrs 
have been given “ authority over ten cities/’ or 
wide districts of territory over which they hold 
supervision. Others have had given to them 
“ authority over five cities/’ or still less au¬ 
thority, yet that which is equal to their capac¬ 
ity. The most perfect harmony has reigned 
among the nations. Xo more friction; no more 
violated compacts; no more infringing on the 

rights of others; no more misunderstandings; 

129 


130 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


no more complications that threaten war; no 
more battle-ships; no more standing armies at 
heavy expense to the nations. Peace and per¬ 
fect tranquillity have reigned under the 
<c Prince of Peace ” who alone could bring 
about peace after all the most strenuous efforts 
of the nations had failed—utterly, ignomini- 
ously failed! The nations of the whole earth 
have been completely unified. At first they 
were ruled over with a rod of iron (Rev. 2:27, 
19:15), then with Satan and his Antichrist 
consigned to the bottomless pit, peace and love 
took the place of force. After several thousand 
years under the rule of “ the god of this 
world” (II Cor. 4:3, 4), and failure, ruin 
and wreckage the inevitable outcome, now a 
thousand years with Christ in control shows a 
most striking contrast in results, with a glori¬ 
ous civilization covering the entire earth! 

Then I saw Jesus going back to the throne 
of God to report the work He had eventually 
accomplished through the sacrifice of His own 
blood on the cross for the redemption of a fallen 
race, and to deliver the kingdom He had bought 
with His blood to the Father (I Cor. 15:24- 
27). What an hour! It seemed to me that 
Heaven had never before been so crowded with 
the angel hosts—seraphim and cherubim in 
shining garment of white, whose faces glowed 


THE NEW HEAVENS 


131 


with celestial glory while they united with 
great delegations from the unfallen worlds in 
an unparalleled celebration of this unique event 
of supreme importance. There was one round 
of song and praise and heavenly anthem after 
another, and it wound up with the climactic 
scene of the archangel Gabriel placing the 
Crown of Victory upon the once bleeding brow 
of the Son of God! Then all the heavenly host 
prostrated itself in adoration of the Son, pro¬ 
claiming in the most perfect unison, “ Holy, 
Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, the Eternal 
Alpha and Omega, to whom be Glory, honour 
and praise throughout the Ages upon Ages.” 

Test seems to be a universal law. It must 
come. Without tests there is only a passive 
piety and a negative virtue. All souls must un¬ 
dergo temptation, Christ Himself not being ex¬ 
empt therefrom. So Satan was loosed for “ a 
little season,” that he might go out and try all 
those who were born during the millennium. 
During this period there were millions of * 
births and very few deaths. Not a few of the 
new and untried lives would follow the ex¬ 
ample of Adam and yield to the test. And 
these were the people who enlisted with the 
devil to form his army of wicked ones who sur¬ 
rounded the camp of the saints and the holy 
city (Eev. 20:9). This was the final conflict 


132 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


of all tlie many battles on the poor blood¬ 
stained eartli! God Himself came down and 
led His own hosts on to triumphant victory, for 
He fought the devil with His own fire, till all 
those who had associated themselves with Satan 
were destroyed (II Thes. 2:8; Heb. 10:27). 
Then he through whose machinations those un¬ 
able to withstand the test had aligned them¬ 
selves, was consigned to the lake of fire and 
brimstone to be tormented day and night for¬ 
ever (Rev. 20: 1). This is the last of Satan! 
“ Praise God from whom all blessings flow! ” 
With this final disposition of the devil, and 
the ending of death—man’s last enemy (I Cor. 
15:26) the way was now clear for the unfold¬ 
ing of that glorious estate for which suffering 
humanity had so long yearned. As John Wes¬ 
ley put it, “ Restless, resigned, for God I wait. 
For God my vehement soul stands still.” The 
prayers of saints had long been full of ex¬ 
pectancy. Sermons centered around this soul- 
satisfying prospect. Hymns and songs were 
saturated with the theme, Heaven. Eying 
saints had often caught glorious glimpses of the 
celestial city. The Word of God had spoken 
much, if mystically, about the peaceful, happy 
life to be. The soul’s deepest desire, the heart’s 
greatest yearning, the dearest dream of ages, 
had been Heaved. 



THE NEW HEAVENS 


133 


The dear old saints of earth in their shouts 
of “ Glory ”!, had given vent to a rhapsody all 
too spasmodic. Their foretaste of the Heaven- 
to-be, when all saints should at all times live 
in the ecstasy of constant communion with their 
blessed Lord, had been all too short, and almost 
tantalizing. One dear old saint who immortal¬ 
ized himself in his writing on Heaven had said, 
( I have an unspeakable desire to know the 
future, to see and enjoy it, and to be there,” in 
which sentiment he but expressed the yearnings 
of all saints in all ages. 

The J ewish people, as is perfectly well 
known, were saturated with an insatiable de¬ 
sire to enjoy Heaven in the flesh, on earth, a 
Kingdom of Peace, Plenty and Prosperity. 
It was the dream of the patriarchs and the en¬ 
rapturing vision of the prophets of Israel. 
Where did they get it ? Undoubtedly from 
their own scriptures—our Bible, too, in part. 

While my own soul became intoxicated with 
the transcending scenes of future glory to 
which a most merciful Heavenly Father was in¬ 
troducing me, my mind turned easily, and 
naturally to the thrilling descriptions, with 
which I was so familiar through years of close 
and prayerful study, of the new day to dawn 
for erstwhile sin-cursed humanity, as given by 
the grand old men of God, the prophets of 


134 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 

Israel, who were so greatly honoured by being 
allowed, Moses-like, to stand on some high peak 
of vantage ground and thence to view the splen¬ 
did spectacle of a sinless world conquered by 
Jesus Christ, “ the Prince of Peace,” and by 
Him delivered to the Father in Heaven above. 
Even Abraham “ looked for a city which hath 
foundations, whose builder and maker is God ” 
(Heb. 11: 10). Poor old pitiably wishy-washy 
Balaam had prophesied, “ I shall see him, but 
not now; I shall behold him, but not nigh: 
there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a 
sceptre shall rise out of Israel—Out of Jacob 
shall come he that shall have dominion ” (Num. 
24:17, 19). That outstanding human peak, 
the patriarch Job, said, “ For I know that my 
Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the 
latter day upon the earth: and though, after 
my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my 
flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:25, 26). [The 
Psalmist saw the “ greater” Jerusalem, and 
said, “ The Lord doth build up Jerusalem- 
* * * When the Lord doth build up Zion, 

he shall appear in his glory” (Psa. 102: 16). 
Hosea heard the Lord saying, “ I will be thy 
king” (Hos. 13:10). Isaiah in one of his 
many intoxicating rhapsodies caught the glori¬ 
ous vision and exclaimed, “ Behold a King shall 
reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule 


THE NEW HEAVENS 


135 


in judgment ” (Isa. 32: 1). “ Thine eyes shall 
see the king in his beauty ” (Isa. 33:17). 
“ For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our 
law-giver, the Lord is our king: he will save 
us” (Isa. 33:22). “Sing, O heavens, and be 
joyful, O earth: and break forth into singing, 
O mountains: for the Lord hath comforted his 
people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted ” 
(Isa. 49:13). “ Break forth into joy, sing 

together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the 
Lord hath comforted his people, he hath re¬ 
deemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare 
his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and 
all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation 
of our God” (Isa. 52:9, 10). “For thou 
shalt break forth on the right hand and on the 
left: thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and 
make the desolate cities to be inhabited. * * * 
For thy Maker is thine Husband; the Lord of 
Hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the holy 
One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall 
he be called” (Isa. 54:3, 5). “Arise and 

shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of 
the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, the 
darkness shall cover the earth, and gross dark¬ 
ness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon 
thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. 
And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and 
kings to the brightness of thy rising” (Isa. 


136 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


60:1-3). “For since the beginning of the 
world men have not heard, nor perceived by 
the ear, neither hath the eye seen, 0 God, be¬ 
side thee, what he hath prepared for him that 
waiteth for him 7 ’ (Isa. 64:4). 

Then God gave to Jeremiah, whose prophe¬ 
cies might be called pessimistic, a glorious 
vision of those golden days of victory on earth: 
“ Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that 
I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and 
a king shall reign and prosper, and shall exe¬ 
cute judgment and justice in the earth. In his 
days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall 
dwell safely; and this is the name whereby he 
shall he called, The Loed Oue Righteous¬ 
ness ' 7 (Jer. 23: 5, 6). “And they shall teach 
no more every man his neighbour, and every 
man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for 
they shall all know me, from the least of them 
unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for 
I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remem¬ 
ber their sin no more 77 (Jer. 31:34). “Be¬ 
hold, I will gather them out of all countries 
whither I have driven them in mine anger, and 
in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will 
bring them again unto this place, and I will 
cause them to dwell safely; and they shall be 
my people, and I will be their God; and I will 
give them one heart, and one way, that they 


THE NEW HEAVENS 


137 


may fear me forever, for the good of them, and 
for their children after them: and I will make 
an everlasting covenant with them, that I will 
not turn away from them to do them good; hut 
I will put my fear in their hearts, that they 
shall not depart from me. Yea, I will rejoice 
over them to do them good, and I will plant 
them in this land assuredly with my whole 
heart, and with my whole soul * * * for 

thus saith the Lord, Like as I have brought all 
this great evil upon this people so will I bring 
upon them all the good that I have promised 
them” (Jer. 32:37-42). 

But time would fail us to give the visions of 
the many major and minor prophets. There 
is a wonderful similarity in the seeings and 
sayings of these prophets of God. They all see 
Christ as King; they see the Jews returned to 
Palestine; they see Jerusalem rebuilt; they see 
peace, plenty and progress; they see security 
from their enemies, and eventually a remark¬ 
able triumph over the other nations of the 
earth, by whom their people had been mocked, 
derided and maltreated. 

After more than a quarter of a century of 
praying, thinking, crying, agonizing over these 
wonderful prophetic pictures, until saturated 
with their essence, is it any wonder that God 
should have imbued me with the gist of their 


138 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


teaching, and inspired me to see, and stimu¬ 
lated me to tell that which has lingered in my 
mind and heart of the gracious and even glori¬ 
ous visions He saw fit to give me ? The glory 
of the one thousand years of peace was itself 
soul-satisfying, but even greater glory, and in 
line with all the holy prophets, will now be un¬ 
folded in the vision of “ the new heavens and 
the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous¬ 
ness. 7 ’ 

Following the chaos of social relations and 
conditions came a more awful, because a more 
feelable, chaos of earthly conditions. The sky 
became lurid; the air seemed black; tongues of 
fire leaped up from the horizon in different di¬ 
rections; lightnings flashed; mighty peals of 
thunder rolled through the strange-looking 
heavens; earthquakes shook the whole earth 
with queer tremblings; all nature seemed con¬ 
vulsed ! Then it grew very dark—but only for 
a few seconds did it last; nor did buildings fall, 
crack, or in any wise suffer; nor was anyone 
injured. A mighty transition was taking place 
in the physical earth just as a tremendous 
change had occurred in the spiritual realm 
when Jesus went back to the Father’s House 
and reported the work of redemption of the 
soul, redemption of the body, and the redemp¬ 
tion of the earth itself. As fire came down on 


THE NEW HEAVENS 


139 


Pentecost to end the reign of flesh in the indi¬ 
vidual; and as fire came down from heaven to 
consume the army of Satan arrayed against 
saints of God, so now fire was working its radi¬ 
cal changes in the earth and air, “ wherein the 
heavens, being on fire, shall he dissolved, and 
the elements shall melt with fervent heat.” 
“ The day of the Lord ” had come, “ in the 
which the heavens shall pass away with a great 
noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent 
heat; the earth, also, and all the works therein, 
shall be burned up. * * * Nevertheless, 

we, according to his promise, look for new 
heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
righteousness” (II Pet. 3:10, 12, 13). 

As previously said, the deck is now cleared! 
Satan is in the lake of fire, along with the 
Antichrist, and all the demons, imps, evil spir¬ 
its and the hosts of hell; war has ended; judg¬ 
ment is past; the Kingdom of Christ has been 
delivered up to the Father; His kingdom has 
reigned in the hearts of men, and in the affairs 
of nations; the earth itself has been purified 
by fire, and fully restored to its Edenic glory! 
All lost in Eden has now been restored, and 
pre-sin peace and splendour, joy and glory now 
reign, and the presence of God on the earth 
has—Hallelujah!—again become an accom- 


140 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 

plished fact! Once more man “ shall see his 
face ” and live! 

While God’s Home is in Heaven—the celes¬ 
tial city, He is also dwelling on all His planets, 
being omnipresent, and at last even upon the 
little prodigal planet! And while the home of 
the redeemed saints is primarily on the earth, 
their heaven, they are strangely enough so much 
like their Big Brother in bodily qualities of 
fully glorified beings, that they, as the angels, 
can now overcome gravity and defy space! So 
that a visit to the throne of God is now an easy 
matter, and they can truly call the Father’s 
House of “ many mansions,” their very own, 
just as any child may freely visit, and feel fully 
at home in, his father’s house on the earth. 

Heaven on earth! God tabernacling with 
men! Now “ nothing between ” the saints and 
their Saviour! Peace, perfect peace, the peace 
that passeth all understanding! The full tri¬ 
umph of the Cross! God’s plans forever vindi¬ 
cated! Man’s new life begun free from all 
handicaps! Eternity has dawned! 

The thrills of this new life are transcend¬ 
ency glorious!—so intoxicating and exhilarat- 
ing that I who make this record—an unemo¬ 
tional man—find it difficult to write for weep¬ 
ing with joy unspeakable and full of glory! 

T et the task is not done. That which was 


THE NEW HEAVENS 


141 


shown me furthermore in my dream of the 
future—my vision of “ the Ages upon Ages/' 
must now he detailed. 

Once more the air was rent. Other huge 
blasts had seemed to show full capacity of 
trumpet soundings; but not so! Gabriel must 
have tried himself this time! The very earth 
seemed to tremble under my feet! The echo 
was something marvelous, and as it rang and 
rolled and radiated, the impression came to me 
the whole earth would hear that blast! Imme¬ 
diately following this mighty sound of the 
trumpet, there came a voice, the voice of the 
archangel Gabriel. It sounded out most clear 
and strong and carried perfectly. Every radio 
station on earth had been attracted by the blast. 
JSTow ten thousand times ten thousand ears were 
listening for anything and all that might fol¬ 
low. It came. Gabriel, with one foot upon the 
sea, and one foot upon the earth, raised his 
hand and said, “ By Him that liveth forever, 
who created Heaven, and the things that are 
therein, and the earth, and the things that are 
therein, and the sea, and the things whicji are 
therein—time shall be no longer! Eternity 
now doth dawn. The Ages upon Ages begin. 
All things old are now passed away. All things 
henceforth are new.” 

As Gabriel disappeared the earth seemed to 


142 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 

teem with angelic hosts ablaze with the glory 
of song, and for the first time on earth I heard 
the angels singing the songs of earth! I recall 
some of the several songs sung: “Holy, Holy, 
Holy, Lord God Almighty/’ “ All Hail the 
Power of Jesus’ Name,” “ Joy to the World the 
Lord is Come,” and “ In the Cross of Christ 
I Glory.” And in all these, and still others, 
the saints of earth joined with the angels, until 
it seemed to me there was one mighty mass of 
heavenly music, even greater than that I had 
heard on the many former occasions. Then 
there came a strange pause—for a few minutes 
unaccountable; till far out in the dim distance 
of space there came a response of song—sweet, 
soft and soul-entrancing, from the sinless lips 
of the unfallen creatures of God’s other, always 
loyal, worlds; and so very distinct was the song 
that all the inhabitants of earth heard and re¬ 
joiced! The prayer of Jesus to the Father was 
now answered—all the flocks were now one! 
(John 10:16; 17:22). The saints of earth 
were at last in full harmony with all the celes¬ 
tial hosts of God’s other worlds! 

Then anew I heard John tell his own vision: 
“ And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for 
the first heaven and the first earth were passed 
away and there was no more sea. And I John 
saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down 



THE NEW HEAVENS 


143 


from God out of Heaven, prepared as a brido 
adorned for her husband. And I heard a great 
voice out of Heaven, saying, Behold, the taber¬ 
nacle of God is with men, and He will dwell 
with them, and they shall be His people, and 
God Himself shall be with them, and be their 
God. And God shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes; and there shall be no more death, 
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there 
be any more pain; for the former things are 
passed away. And He that sat upon the throne 
said, Behold, I make all things new. And He 
said unto me, Write, for these words are true 
and faithful. * * * And He showed me a 
pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, pro¬ 
ceeding out of the throne of God and of the 
Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on 
either side of the river was there the tree of 
life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and 
yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves 
of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 
And there shall be no more curse: but the 
throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; 
and His servants shall serve Him: and they 
shall see His face; and Llis name shall be in 
their foreheads. And there shall be no night 
there: and they need no candle, neither light 
of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: 
and they shall reign forever and forever. And 


144 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


He said unto me, These sayings are faithful 
and true: and the Lord God of the holy 
prophets sent His angel to show unto His ser¬ 
vants the things which must shortly he done v 
(Rev. 21:1-5; 22:1-5). 

O, the glory of it all! Who can tell ? Cer¬ 
tainly not this joy-intoxicated soul! Yet his 
task is to try. May the great and good Spirit 
help human infirmities, for he who writes is 
not writing at the time about which he writes; 
nor with that glorified mind and body he shall 
some day possess, but rather a human mind di¬ 
rects a human hand, holding a human pen. 
The only hope is in the Holy Spirit back of the 
human mind and hand. 

It was the same dear old earth which I saw, 
and yet not the same, for it had been made 
anew. Its very face had been changed. The 
gradual beautifying of the surface had been 
seen in the last days of sin when lovely parks 
and submerged gardens changed rough hills 
and grinning gulches into things of beauty and 
pleasure. The earth’s heart-fires had cooled. 
Its mountains had, in places, been leveled, 
while certain seas had been lost. Instead of 
one-fourth of the surface being land, and three- 
fourths water, it was now the exact reverse. 
On the new areas were settled the millions born 
during the millennium. The uninhabited parts 


THE NEW HEAVENS 


145 


of the earth were also now being settled, many 
of the saints who had returned from the un¬ 
fallen spheres having their homes thereon. 
Old-time cities had been marvelously improved 
and enlarged, while new and wonderful ones 
dotted the earth all over. 

Jerusalem was the leading city—the capital 
of all the earth, while the Jews were the lead¬ 
ing people of all nations, now united in their 
own God-given land, hut no longer such Jews 
as we had known, for they, like the earth on 
which they lived, and the very air wdiich they 
breathed, had been regenerated! And all the 
cities had streets, just as now; and business 
flourished in all of them, but with a distinctly 
different object. No business was now run to 
make money! The peoples of the earth were 
one family, and all members contributed time, 
effort, talents for the common good. All busi¬ 
ness was conducted strictly on the basis of “ the 
Golden Rule.” There were no shoddy wares; 
Merchandise abounded, for factories flourished. 
Gold glittered everywhere, while diamonds and 
rubies and pearls sparkled on every hand—both 
literally and figuratively. All markets were 
full of the choicest vegetables and fruits. But 
there were no meat markets! The last enemy, 
death, was a thing of the past. Nothing more 
on earth should ever taste death! Happy pur- 


146 NEW .VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


chasers thronged the streets loving and laugh¬ 
ing and lingering along the sidewalks. 

The water in each city was abundant, clear 
as crystal and cool without ice. No more 
typhoid germs lurked in water. The gardens 
and orchards never tired of yielding their 
bountiful supplies. Month by month brought 
new supplies. No one ate too rapidly. No 
foods disagreed with anyone. Instead of sick¬ 
ness being the rule, and there being u a nation 
of invalids,” all were well. The physicians, 
druggists, undertakers and grave-diggers who 
had so rapidly decreased during the millennium, 
were now defunct. People no longer greeted 
each other with “ Howdy do ? ” There was no 
occasion for it. No one asked, “ Are you all 
well ? ” It was quite needless. There was no 
sudden pain by day, nor cry of agony over 
death by night. There were no operations 
needed, nor hurrying off to hospitals—for hos¬ 
pitals, as well as diseases, were things of the 
past. Men had long worked together under 
Providence to bring about such conditions. 
Science had helped. A hundred factors had 
figured. The change had come. We lived now 
in a new earth! God had made it over! 

The curse of sin had ceased. Noxious 
grasses were gone. Briars, brambles, thorns 
and thistles which began to disappear in the 


THE NEW HEAVENS 


147 


millennium, were supplanted by tbe most beau¬ 
tiful flowers and fruits everywhere. Droughts 
and freshets, storms and tempests came no 
more. Failure in crops could be no longer. 
Extremes of cold and heat were forgotten. 
Darkness, distress, disgrace and death were felt 
and feared no more. There was no night! 
The Shekinah of God’s glorious presence with 
men, completely lighted the earth beyond the 
brightness of the moon by night or the sun by 
day. Frosts, once so much dreaded by farmers 
and horticulturists, ceased to curse the earth. 
Insects which often ate up more in one year 
than a farmer could save in five, were extinct. 
Birds of prey, and sly animals stealing the 
farmer’s profits, no longer annoyed man. The 
fields were plowed, but the farmer did not 
sweat. His plow was pulled by a steel horse 
that did not fret. The farmer’s implements 
were now never in a trust. All things made of 
iron were “ cheap as dirt ” since new and mar¬ 
velous methods of mining had been discovered, 
and iron was no longer used for armour plate, 
cannon balls, rifles, submarines, “ dread- 
naughts,” etc. There were, of course, no 
standing armies, no navies, no marines, no mili¬ 
tary nor naval schools. The police force was 
no longer needed. Taxes were not necessary. 
A huge army of peace officers had died from 


148 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


disuse ! All jails, penitentiaries, prisons, alms¬ 
houses and reform schools had long ago been 
transformed into places of peaceful and con¬ 
structive service. 

Most wonderful pieces of civil engineering, 
hitherto unthought of, now provided stupen¬ 
dous water systems conserving the waste water 
for irrigation purposes and opening up the 
desert lands of marvelous richness and bearing 
qualities (Isa. 35: 1, 2, 5, 7, 9). New metals 
had been discovered and were in general use— 
some so far above gold in beauty that it, now 
most abundant, was as common as iron for¬ 
merly was. Through earthquakes, upheavals, 
and other earth disturbances, there were let 
loose many new and precious stones, while 
from meteoric skow r ers there had come to our 
earth such gems of beauty as we had never 
dreamed possible. Thus gems and jewels 
abounded to beautify palaces and public build¬ 
ings everywhere. Mansions of the rarest archi¬ 
tecture and charming beauty were to be seen 
in all cities not only, but in the rural districts, 
by all highways, and crowning the hills of 
beauty, and lining the streams of loveliness. 
Comfort, ease, health and happiness reigned all 
over the earth. Social life was greatly intensi¬ 
fied, but was free from all sloppiness, slime- 
pits and sinful pleasures (?). All lives were 



THE NEW HEAVENS 


149 


clean, honest, sincere, successful and perfectly 
satisfied. Misery gave place to mirth, poverty 
died a natural death, crime cringed, gasped for 
its last breath and slunk into the regions of the 
doomed. No one now slaved for silver nor 
ground for gold. There was ample time to 
visit, and equal desire therefor. And the 
grand old saints, long back from God’s 
glory world of sinless, shining spheres, were 
just as interesting now as in the beginning of 
their second lives on the earth. Great learn¬ 
ing, and centuries of study in those unfallen 
worlds had spoiled no saint! No one had “ the 
big head! ” Arrogancy and egotism and dis¬ 
gusting pride afflicted none. All were kind, 
considerate, tender, gentle, unselfish, and quite 
ready to teach those who had not yet made the 
round of those wonderful worlds of uninter¬ 
rupted development. Most gladly, too, were 
they aiding in the reproduction on earth of 
such features of other planets’ civilizations as 
were desirable. 

No one was sensitive. None took offense, 
and could not, perhaps, for none was offered ! 
It made me think of Paul’s charge : “ Look not 
every man on his own things, but every man 
also on the things of others” (Phil. 2:4). 
What delicate deference for others! What 
charming manners! Every man had become a 


150 NEW .VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


gentleman, and all women were transformed 
into real ladies. Little children were refresh¬ 
ingly polite, and showed utmost respect for 
their seniors. There were no servants, yet all 
were servants of the living God, the loving 
Father of all. 

I heard no hasty word: I noted no unfor¬ 
giving spirit; I saw nothing like jealousy any¬ 
where or in any relation. I saw men with their 
several wives (succeeded one the other through 
death—not divorce), and women with their 
more than one husband, and yet all was most 
beautifully harmonious and peaceful and satis¬ 
factory—a thing hardly possible on the old 
earth in Brigham Young’s realm, or even in 
Abraham’s day! Ill-will could not possibly 
live in such an air of perfect love. It was easily 
apparent that many in the old life had prac¬ 
ticed, in giving vent to their natural tendencies 
of temperament and temper, the things which 
could not he used here. On the other hand I 
saw that all who had cultivated justice, unsel¬ 
fishness, patience, forgiveness, generosity, char¬ 
ity, meekness, temperance, truthfulness, can¬ 
dor, kindness and kindred virtues while on the 
old earth, found these beautiful traits splendid 
assets in the new life of heaven on earth. 

But not only the great saints should he men¬ 
tioned: there were the less known, but no less 


THE NEW HEAVENS 151 

dear, who had been ruthlessly removed from 
earth by death; others who had suffered in 
agony untold; and still others who had lingered 
long on beds of pain—all were here, and their 
lives were somehow the more subdued, the more 
winsome and the more worthy, really, for the 
fiery trials through which they had passed. 
This fact recalled to my mind Peter’s state¬ 
ment, on earth so little understood, but now 
seen to be actually true, namely, “ Beloved, 
think it not strange concerning the fiery trial 
which is to try you, as though some strange 
thing happened unto you: but rejoice, in as 
much as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; 
that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may 
be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be re¬ 
proached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; 
for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon 
yeu ” (I Peter 4:12-14). “ Perfected through 
suffering” (Heb. 2:10), also came into my 
mind. I now easily saw how that many who 
had undergone so much suffering on the old 
earth, and humbly allowed “ patience to have 
her perfect work” (James 1:4) had thus be¬ 
come qualified and equipped for filling places 
of great importance and honour in the new 
life. 

Perhaps the strangest of all the small items 
of the new life which deeply impressed me was 


152 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


the utter absence of money! That “ filthy 
lucre 77 which was so greedily sought on earth, 
which so many had worshipped there, was not 
to be seen in all the new realm of humanity 
glorified! There was really no need for it. It 
reminded me of a thing I had long forgotten, 
namely, the old-fashioned “ log-rollings 77 and 
“ house-raisings/ 7 when all the neighbours in a 
pioneer community gathered to help roll the 
logs off of the “ new ground 77 field, or assist 
in raising a log house. Not one of the neigh¬ 
bours ever thought of charging a cent for his 
help. It was a neighbourly act in which all the 
best citizens of a community took real and 
commendable pride. Or, this widespread, even 
uniform manner of exchange in service, this 
combine, not now of cash, but rather of char¬ 
acter—heads, hearts and hands combining to 
aid one the other—might be likened to a family 
affair. In any refined family there would be 
no thought of charging one the other for ser¬ 
vices rendered. 

It was wonderful! All kinds of great and 
even gigantic activities were going forward 
daily, yet with no lack of labour, no fussing 
over wages, no threats to “ strike, 77 no yawning 
gulf of envy and hate between the builder and 
the builders. The owner himself would be 
busy helping those who now were doing work 


THE NEW HEAVENS 


153 


for him. Reciprocity in love was the law I saw 
in smooth and perfect action. In the case of 
public works, all were equally interested, and 
all took part in doing that which would con¬ 
tribute to the common good, and make for the 
community happiness. It was just so in the 
stores. These seemed to he rather exchanges 
of wares. There was no bookkeeping. Ma¬ 
chines registered all deals, and accounts were 
easily and duly squared by the records thereof, 
in due time each one receiving a satisfactory 
settlement. The coin of the new Canaan was 
the lucre of love. 

Another feature of that new life which 
haunts me till now, when I need twenty-five 
hours in each day of twenty-four that I may 
catch up with work long piled up, was the ab¬ 
sence of sleep! What a present handicap it is 
to spend from six to ten hours inactively in 
sleep. What a tremendous loss this necessity 
has meant to our state on earth, our “ paren¬ 
thesis of sin ” civilization. No wonder we got 
so far behind the unfallen spheres. Thomas 
Edison saw and keenly felt this handicap as 
worth-while work kept piling up on his broad 
shoulders, and by persistent practice while em¬ 
ployed in fascinating, absorbing service for 
making his contribution towards the clumsy 
civilization of the “ parenthesis of sin,” re- 


154 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


duced his waste (?) hours to only four! But 
even he, when passing the seventy-five and -six 
mile posts felt the protests of Nature, and has 
been forced to change some of his plans in 
order to get more sleep. But not at all so in 
“ the new heavens and the new earth wherein 
dwelleth righteousness.’ 7 There was no night 
there! Nor was it at all needed. Where beings 
never tire, never become ill, feel no weakness, 
decay is unknown and age an outcast, what 
need of night! Sleep and sin and night and 
death were a quartette of the accursed civiliza¬ 
tion—not of the celestial. 

I retain vividly in my mind a little incident 
characteristic of the new world which consti¬ 
tutes our future heaven. I thought I was 
strolling leisurely along the street of a beauti¬ 
ful city in the glory land, when suddenly as I 
turned a corner I was confronted with a most 
masterful lion whose shaggy mane and tower¬ 
ing tail and bright, shining eyes all united to 
impress me for a moment with the direst dan¬ 
ger. I caught my breath! But it was only for 
a single second, for there beside that monster 
lion I saw, as if by magic, the Master Himself 
standing, stroking the monster as a small boy 
would his Newfoundland dog. And at the 
same moment there came along the street an 
innocent little child who stopped and put one 


THE NEW HEAVENS 


155 


hand in the Master’s, the other on the shaggy 
head whereon His own divine hand caressingly 
rested. 

Elsewhere I have mentioned Churches as 
being used in the new earth, hut let no one 
imagine that they were such Churches as ours 
of the present. In their exquisitely charming 
architecture they surpassed that dream of 
present earth beauty, the Library of Congress. 
At times the people assembled in them, but not 
on the Sabbath, for all days were now Sab¬ 
baths! But at stated times, or on call, there 
were congregations and services. The services 
of this renewed and glorified earth-life were al¬ 
ways conducted with one single thought in 
mind—the glory of God! There was, there¬ 
fore, little to remind me of the Church services 
held on earth in the old days. Into one of these 
services I stepped. The quiet order, the sweet 
solemnity, the sacred air, the peaceful rever¬ 
ence, all was radically different to the fussy, 
noisv, loud, harsh Church services of the old 
earth. Strange to say, all the songs were about 
a single theme, and that was blood! Not one 
song I heard failed to refer in some way to the 
Lamb of God and His redeeming work. And 
when they sang, dear old saints—old only in 
years, for they were most vigourous and active 
in physical strength—would show much the 


156 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


same emotion over these thrilling songs, sweet 
in spiritual power, as when in revivals on the 
old earth. Temperament had been borne into 
the new life, so that emotional natures here, as 
in the earth-life previous, would exult in adora¬ 
tion, and shout the praises of the Saviour in 
most thrilling “ Hallelujahs,” ringing out in 
joy and gladness which filled every soul with 
the sweetest satisfaction. 

But what struck me most forcibly in all these 
services was the absence of prayer! Not one 
petition was heard. It was always praise and 
testimonies, and there was only one theme in 
song and testimony, and that was Jesus! Not 
one speaker referred to history, not one dealt 
in philosophy, no metaphysical talks did I hear 
in any service, nor even theology; while not 
one word of intimation to science did I hear. 
Evolution, rationalism, higher destructive criti¬ 
cism were never mentioned! How strange! 
On the old earth I had heard and read so much 
of these themes handled by great towering in¬ 
tellects, and advocated by the “ advanced ” 
scholars of the times. How my heart fairly 
leaped for joy, as now I recalled that on earth 
I had fought through all these scholarly theo¬ 
ries and held only to one book —just the Word 
of God! 

While the only topic in all these meetings 


THE NEW HEAVENS 


157 


was ever J esus, there was absolutely no monot¬ 
ony, but rather sparkling variety, as speakers 
expressed themselves in captivating and charm¬ 
ing words of beautiful simplicity. Here again 
I am forcibly reminded of the great Apostle 
Paul, who said, “ I fear, lest by any means, 
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, 
so your minds should be corrupted from the 
simplicity that is in Christ ” (II Cor. 11: 3). 

Now and then the speaker was from another 
planet or it was an angel fresh from the throne 
of God, who spoke to the praise of Him who 
had left the “ Father’s House ” and shed His 
blood on the earth to redeem it from sin. But 
whoever spoke, he spoke only and always of 
Jesus. In conferring with the visitors from 
other worlds, and with the angels from the 
throne, I found that this was not true of the 
worship on other spheres. Jesus had not died 
for them. He had died only for our little 
prodigal planet, and its one theme, throughout 
eternity, should be “ the Lamb of God that tak- 
eth away the sin of the world” (John 1: 29). 
For Jesus had brought back the planet by the 
shedding of His blood, and had at last led home 
the straying prodigal. 

I was beholding the climax in spiritual life. 
I could hear Paul saying, “ Howbeit that was 
not first which is spiritual, but that which is 


158 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.” 
“ The unspiritual man rejects the things of the 
Spirit of God, and cannot attain to the knowl¬ 
edge of them because they are spiritually dis¬ 
cerned. But he that is spiritual diseerneth all 
things, yet he himself is not understood of men. 
For who hath understood the mind of the Lord 
that he may instruct him? But we have the 
mind of Christ” (I Cor. 2: 14-16; Weymouth’s 
Translation). “ But ye are not in the flesh, 
but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of 
God dwell in you. Now if any man have not 
the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his ” (Rom. 
8:9). The natural man, “ the flesh,” has had 
its day. The triumph of the spiritual, the life 
of God in man, has come. Those who have 
been in love with the spiritual, and sought to 
live spiritual lives, have been gradually grow¬ 
ing out of the flesh-life into the spirit-life of 
this beautiful and glorious new world, the 
Heaven of the saints on earth. To all such 
this is not altogether a new experience, for they 
have entertained Heaven in their hearts while 
yet on the old earth. Now the New Heaven is 
entertaining them! O what success of life! 
What triumph over sin and its horrible curse! 
What victory over self and its insidious de¬ 
mands! What glory divine in redeemed and 
sanctified human hearts! What superb peace 


THE NEW HEAVENS 


159 


that passeth all understanding! What perfect 
satisfaction with the things God hath prepared 
for them that love Him! What supreme rap¬ 
ture of soul basking in the celestial light of 
love! What intoxicating ecstasy of new life 
and surroundings! What praise and thanks¬ 
giving and happy hallelujahs over the fact that 
all this is to he eteenal! Glory! Glory! 
Glory to God in the Highest ! 

Who can again wail over the departing dear 
ones who go to he with the Lord until “ the day 
of restitution of all things ? ” Who would now 
hold them hack ? Who would now begrudge 
them their glorious flights from one unfallen 
planet to another in the blazing splendours of 
triumphant victory over ignorance, littleness, 
sickness, sorrow and death ? Let us mourn for 
those who remain. Let us rejoice for those who 
have slipped away to learn real life, sinless life, 
glorious life, and who will come hack some 
sweet day to teach us and our fellow-man the 
better civilizations of worlds unacquainted with 
wrong and unaccustomed to sin. “ Blessed are 
the dead which die in the Lord from hence¬ 
forth : Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest 
from their labours; and their works do follow 
them” (Bev. 14:13). 

But why should I continue? Even if I 
would, time will not permit. Only glimpses, 


160 NEW VISION OF ANOTHER HEAVEN 


little patches of glory, have been recorded. 
This record of the things God so graciously 
gave me was not intended to he complete—for 
eternity affairs never end! The plan was to 
trace the slime of the serpent’s trail till it 
ended, and then to share with the reader some 
of the glory, the rhapsody, the supreme ecstasy 
which has filled the author’s heart so full at 
times while he wrote of looking down the vista 
of time into a millennium of peace, and then on 
and out into an eternity of bliss in the glory- 
world God will give us when “ time is no 
more.” The vision has literally and utterly 
altered the life of the writer and given to his 
labours a new zest, and, may God please, a new 
power to win men unto Him. That the book 
may he read by a million people, and thousands 
be led to prepare for things that shall soon come 
to pass, is the prayer of him whom God has 
honoured with the trust of these truths. 
“ Wherefore, 0 man, prepare to meet thy 
God” (Amos 4:12). Prepare for the rich 
heritage in glory which shall be thine on for¬ 
saking sin and accepting Jesus as thy personal 
Saviour. Amen. 


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